Campesinos Sin Fronteras gets grants to provide health care

Campesinos Sin Fronteras, a nonprofit organization serving migrant and seasonal farm workers, has received a $150,000 grant from Johnson and Johnson in recognition of its commitment to providing quality and affordable health care to low-income families and individuals.

The funds will be used to help fight diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease through education and promotion of healthier lifestyles among the Hispanic population, said Emma Torres, executive director of Campesinos Sin Fronteras.

"With all the funding cuts going on, it's really tough for the community to provide prevention services. It was very timely for us to get that award and it has been an excellent support.

"Most important, I think Campesinos Sin Fronteras is able to continue having staff that will go out in the community and help the farm worker population by preventing chronic diseases through education and promotion of health and health activities," Torres added.

The newly funded program plans to send staff members to hand out educational health brochures and offer their health services by walking door to door in south Yuma County neighborhoods, visiting farm workers in the fields, visiting churches and creating health fairs.

Their second objective is to work with Hispanic women by offering free nutrition classes and exercise classes.

Their third objective is to prevent childhood obesity by creating fun, educational physical activities for children and deter them from watching too much television or playing video games for entertainment.

Leonarda Jaramillo, program coordinator for Campesinos Sin Fronteras, said the program is in the process of recruiting staff members, plans for the program to launch next month and will be free of charge to anyone who wants to join the program.

James Caverly, spokesman for Johnson and Johnson, said Campesinos Sin Fronteras was one of the 10 organizations nationwide that received funding due to their approach of treating diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

"We can just tell that they had a very strong connection to help low-income community members and residents in their community," Caverly said.

For more information about the Campesinos Sin Frontera organization, visit www.campesinossinfronteras.org.

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Stephanie Sanchez can be reached at ssanchez@yumasun.com or 539-6847.