En Español

For Immediate Release
March 28, 2001

Diana Ip, i.e. communications
(415) 616-3930

Diego de la Garza, TCWF
(818) 715-1978

Farmworkers Promote Preventive Health and Safety Measures

Inspired by Labor Leader Cesar Chavez, Organization Trains Women To Improve Health in the Fields

Pomona, CA - Inspired by the United Farm Workers (UFW) and its leader Cesar Chavez, Virginia Ortega decided to do something about the health needs facing women farmworkers. Ortega had worked on Coachella Valley farms since 1965, where she picked grapes and grapefruit and bunched green onions, often unaware that her exposure to pesticides was potentially harmful. 

In 1988, to develop and expand leadership skills among female farmworkers, Ortega co-founded Organización en California de Lideres Campesinas (OCLC) (Farmworker Women’s Leadership Network). Through one of its programs, OCLC trains women to be Promotoras de Salud (Health Promoters). The promotoras act as health advocates, sharing information with their peers about pesticide poisoning, safety and field sanitation laws at house meetings and through other outreach efforts. The health information these women share also benefits the men and children in their families. The Promotoras de Salud program is funded in part by a two-year, $100,000 grant from The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF).

“Farmworkers are exposed to many pesticides that can adversely affect their health,” said Gary L. Yates, TCWF president and CEO. “The work of the promotoras addresses a critical need for more health education that stresses prevention among a vulnerable population.”

Many health experts believe that exposure to some pesticides can cause memory loss, cancer, birth defects and even death.

The goal of the statewide, regional and local trainings is to help farmworkers identify health problems at their work sites. The workers are then encouraged to form groups of two or three to approach their employers or to report the problems to OCLC. In turn, OCLC addresses violations through its partnerships with legal advocates and unions. 

“The message that we are trying to spread among the thousands of women who need to hear it is, ‘It is up to us to take control of our lives,’” said OCLC Executive Director Mily Treviño-Sauceda. “We train them so they can empower themselves and other women.” 

Using short plays, house meetings, presentations at local high schools and other creative formats, OCLC promotoras educate farmworkers and teens from around the state’s rural regions about women’s overall health and wellness.

“Ladies help other ladies to become more confident,” Ortega said. “Our work is very successful because [the female farmworkers] believe in us. They trust us. Women need to know they are very valuable. We are a powerful community, if we are unified.”

“The promotoras training is one of the few programs helping California’s farmworkers, particularly women farmworkers, to learn about workplace injury and illness prevention,” said TCWF Program Officer Lucía Corral Peña. “Despite the valiant effort of the UFW and other advocates, the struggle to ensure better health and longer lives for the state’s farmworkers continues.”

The California Wellness Foundation is an independent, private foundation created in 1992 with a mission to improve the health of the people of California by making grants for health promotion, wellness education and disease prevention. The Foundation provides funding in five priority areas: community health, population health improvement, teenage pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, and work and health. It also provides health-related funding through a Special Projects fund. The California Wellness Foundation has awarded 2,024 grants totaling more than $295 million since 1992.

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