Mexico Nogales, Sonora & Nogales, Arizona

More than 11,000 adults and children received information and education regarding health issues affecting their community in 2009 thanks to Esperança!

 

Help us Reach our Goals for 2010!

• Provide health education and training for 1,500 Nogales families
• Provide monthly preventative health screenings to 600 at-risk individuals
• Train 13 more volunteer workers to become Community Health Workers
• Teach fitness classes to 600 Nogales residents

Our newest public health project aims to improve the health of the poor in the border city of Nogales. Our community health workers (Promotoras) reach out to families living on both sides of the border – in Mexico and Arizona – to disperse health education and prevention messages. We are promoting dietary changes, screening for chronic illness and exercise as a form of positive disease prevention through workshops, health talks, home visits, and family groups.

Our partner, Asociación de Promotoras de Nogales/Nogales Promotoras Association, has been established in the communities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora for more than 5 years. The Association is a grassroots organization founded by several women community health workers who are full-time volunteers. They have dedicated their lives to provide community health education and advocacy services for the uninsured and underserved in the community. The mission of our Nogales project is to provide community outreach in order to improve health status through education, advocacy, support, and access to health and community resources for those in need.

Nogales, Arizona is an economically impoverished population with 34% of the population living below 100% of the federal poverty level. The rate of unemployment is 16.2% compared to 5.6% in the state of Arizona overall. Nogales is a medically underserved community with few medical resources that are affordable and accessible. Most families live in communities called colonias, shantytowns that have little access to basic services such as water, electricity, plumbing, and other basic amenities. Families move here in hopes for a better life and employment opportunities such as factory-work, agriculture, and construction. Unfortunately, the end result is that many families, although living in or near the U.S., are living in conditions similar to that of a third-world country. Children are plagued by both malnutrition and obesity; families suffer from both chronic and infectious diseases.

Esperança’s work in Nogales is instrumental to improving the health and quality of life for thousands of families who have lost hope and are living in poverty!