YUMA (Arizona) SUN

January 26, 2010

In the Fields: Community caring

BY STEPHANIE A. WILKEN, SUN STAFF WRITER

Not knowing where to turn for help can make life difficult, but one local nonprofit wants to help the farmworker population with services.

The Somerton-based nonprofit Campesinos Sin Fronteras, or Farmworkers Without Borders, helps provide many health and social services to the farmworker community.

But it doesn't just stop there.

The organization is changing its name to the Southwest Community Corporation for Education and Economic Development, or SCCEED. Executive Director Emma Torres recently told Bajo El Sol the organization provides a range of services for people around the county of limited means, not just farmworkers - and the name is meant to reflect that.

Campesinos helps provides services such as HIV/AIDS education, diabetes education, high blood pressure and cholesterol testing and others.

Since 1997, Campesinos started working on prevention in the community, Torres said.

And now as an official 501(c)(3), since 1999, and with a budget of about $1 million, they help focus on prevention and education, she said.

Campesinos mainly gets its funding from private foundations and grants and they don't charge for services, said Torres.

"With very little resources, we stretch it to the max," she said.

Torres and Campesinos Programs Director Floribella Redondo said they know what it's like because their families were once in that same position.

"Health care is one of the major issues for this population because they work on a seasonal basis or they work for contractors; (contractors) do not provide health insurance," Torres said. "This is one of the populations with the highest uninsured rate in the country."

And with 46,000 workers in Yuma-area fields at one time, Torres said as reported by the Department of Economic Security, there is a lot of need.

"With that you can see the tremendous impact it has on our community, in our economy, the work that they do," she said. "However, people know very little about them and their needs and how to service them."

One way that Campesinos helps is through the promotores model.

That means a worker with Campesinos acts as a liaison, helping guide the person through programs and by speaking Spanish.

"All of our programs are run by promotores," Redondo said.

Torres said workers with Campesinos are some of the pioneers of the model since the organization started.

For farmworkers, it may be difficult to ask for help.

"Our population is very sensitive," Torres said. "It's not just about giving them a service, but they want to see that it's given to them with caring and compassion."

Another one of the ways Campesinos helps the farmworker population is through the annual Dia De Campesinos, this last year with some 50 other agencies.

Torres said organizations such as Chicanos Por La Causa, the Yuma Regional Medical Center, the Sunset Community Health Center, the Yuma County Health Department and the Department of Economic Security are just some of the organizations that help Campesinos help local farmworkers.

"We could not do it without our partners," Redondo said.

"This is a huge undertaking that one agency could not do," Torres said. "We have taken the lead in organizing, but it's really through the many, many agencies that are committed every year that this takes place."