DELMARVA – providing migrant workers with the resources they need; That’s what organizations continue to do with a new 5-year campaign partnership with the CDC.
“We make a huge difference in our group here on the Delmarva Coast. It’s amazing, it’s really amazing,” said Jesus Sanchez, deputy director of UFCW Local 27.
An organization running the campaign told us that Delmarva’s meat, poultry and seafood crops became hotbeds for coronavirus over the past year, adding barriers to communication and health risks to migrants.
“We know that too many people got sick, too many people lost their lives, and we talk about immigrant communities, communities of low-income people of color,” said Julia Coburn, project manager of the Centro de los Derechos del Migrante.
Therefore, this campaign, announced on April 28th, will continue efforts to prevent and control infectious diseases, especially COVID-19, among local migrant workers.
“We’re not just helping them figure out what COVID is, how it affects them, how it affects their families, how the closeness of their employees makes a difference,” said Sanchez.
“We have released videos in collaboration with hospitals and health departments to vaccinate people,” said Coburn.
And since food workers are coming to the states from Mexico, we are told that getting those resources out is critical.
“A lot of these people have a lot of questions, are at very high risk of COVID infection and have a lot of questions about whether they have access to the vaccine, whether they need to be quarantined after the trip, and what rights they have if they do Have to So, ”said Coburn.
In the future, organizations have told us that they hope this will help reduce COVID infection and build more partnerships.
“The short term is about getting gunshots in the arms, getting vaccinations and getting everyone to safety,” said Sanchez.
We learned in the first year of the campaign that the demonstration phase of the project aims to reach up to 19,000 workers on Delmarva.
The initial effort is funded by a $ 1.7 million grant that provides the CDC with data to inform new guidelines and best practices, including vaccination strategies.
