INDIAN RIVER (Florida) PRESS-JOURNAL

November 6, 2009

Saturday health fair in Fellsmere to kick off opening of new Farmworker Association office

By Lisa Bolivar

FELLSMERE — Community members will get the chance Saturday to participate in a health fair, screening and clothes giveaway during the grand opening of the new location of the Farmworker Association of Florida local offices.

The agency moved from next to Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission on County Road 12 to a new office at 29-A S. Maple St. And with the move comes two new programs, one for pregnant women called Baby, I love you, and one that offers HIV/AIDS education and screening called The Youth Empowerment Program.

Music, food, free clothes and health information, along with displays about education and services for residents, will be featured between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., said Araseli Zamarripa, outreach specialist for the Fellsmere youth program.

The Youth Empowerment Program is a pilot program offered over the next three years in eight weekly sessions that begin in January, thanks to a $732,000 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant and in partnership with the Florida Department of Health, according to Marisol Saucedo, agency coordinator for Homestead and Immokalee.

The first session ended recently, Zamarripa said.

The Farmworker Association of Florida serves five Florida areas where migrant and agricultural communities are located including Homestead, Immokalee, Pearson and Apopka. Fellsmere’s programs are geared to the Hispanic community — especially since statistics show a dramatic increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases amongst Hispanics.

While Latinos make up about 15 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 17 percent of new HIV/AIDS cases in 2006, according to a CDC Web site. In 2006, HIV/AIDS was the fourth leading cause of death among Hispanic men and women ages 35 to 44, according to the site.