Due to the injustices faced by the farmworker population, several groups in Florida have created initiatives to relieve some of the the daily burdens associated with assimilating to a new country.

 

Mobile Clinics:

 

Several mobile clinics throughout the state cater to these underserved communities by driving to their work site to diagnose and treat farmworkers during their lunch breaks. The clinics’ purposes are to deliver basic medical services to underserved populations in the area.

 

“It brings the health care to people. And with many of our populations you’ll find they don’t trust the healthcare system, and ironically, they do trust us even though we’re on a bus,” said Daisy Renteria, community programs coordinator for the UF Mobile Outreach Program.

The people who work and volunteer for UF’s Mobile Outreach Program cater to areas of the state that don’t have enough providers, or to populations that are either uninsured or underinsured.

 

One common topic they discuss is sexual health - they provide HIV testing, STI testing, family planning services such as providing access to condoms, birth control, and prescriptions.

“It’s important for [farmworkers] to not have an excuse anymore...if we’re down the street there’s no excuse at that point,” Renteria said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

Community Health Trainings:

 

The Farmworkers Association of Florida also works to bring health care to farmworkers by hosting community trainings about vocational rehabilitation, pregnancy, HIV and STDs and women’s health issues.  

 

According to the association's website, these trainings address a need in the farmworker community for education on preventative health care and community health resources.

 

One of the programs, “Yes We Can,” teaches farmworkers about preventative and protective measures for avoiding pesticide exposure, heat stress, and eye injuries. The program aims to build a sense of community among farmworkers and teach them how to advocate for their rights.

 

FWAF also hosts special trainings for women who face unique challenges.

 

“With extremely high temperatures during the summers and a long growing season, farmworker women of reproductive age are at a higher risk of exposure to occupation dangers,” according to the association's website.

 

Its Sisters/Companeras program has also been providing maternal health services, outreach, education, and referrals to appropriate health services for Latina farmworkers of child-bearing age since 1995.

 

Community Gardens:

 

Due to lack of resources, some farmworkers don’t have access to the very fresh food that they themselves harvest for consumers.

 

“Farmworker communities are often located in really isolated places like Pierson, Florida,” said Pia Desangles, food justice outreach volunteer at the Farmworker Association of Florida. “There’s no grocery store, one or two food stands, and that food is conventionally produce, meaning it is produced with the same toxic chemicals that the workers are exposed to at work.”

 

The Farmworkers Association of Florida has paired with members of the community to plant community gardens in areas where there is a high concentrated population of farmworkers, such as Pierson, Florida. The idea originated in Fellsmere, Florida, and it was so successful it spread to three other communities across the state.

 

“Most farmworkers are landless farmers so when they’re displaced from their farms for whatever reason back in their home countries...they move here and continue [farming], and this is sort-of an attempt to harness that and do it collectively,” Desangles said.

 

FWAF provides gardening supplies, seeds, and the land to the community members to sustain their gardens. Currently, the association is exploring ways to transition the gardens to a community farm in order to make it a more collective project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:

 

In November of 2016, the University of Florida received a grant from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to start a National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health Center in Gainesville, in order to study the occupational safety hazards associated with working in agriculture, fishing, and forestry in states like Florida, Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas.

 

“To have a NIOSH Center means that you have an opportunity to provide support [for] a workforce of a region in our country and that support takes many forms,” said Andy Kane, associate professor of environmental and global health at the University of Florida. “It takes place in terms of training, education, surveillance research, to understand where the risks are and provide training and education and opportunity and intervention to reduce work-related injuries and health-hazards.”

 

Because the NIOSH Center is federally-funded, there is a fear that budget cuts will eliminate the program, Kane said.

 

“Our ability to work to support occupational health and safety for agricultural workers is now in jeopardy because of proposed budget cuts,” he said.