Irene knows firsthand about life as a migrant farmworker. And now she’s working with colleagues Daniel and Andrea on a new mobile app to make sure farmworkers get the help they need to stay safe and healthy. Last month they used the app with EFwM to coordinate outreach to farmworker camps in eastern North Carolina.
As Irene said:
I spent the first four years in this country living with my family of 5 in single, tiny rooms, moving from one work camp to another.
Farmworkers need access to basic health care, labor law information, wage fairness, safety, housing, clothing. This app allows the outreach process to flow smoothly, maximizing the use of limited time and resources.
Having grown up in a farmworker family, I have experienced firsthand the impact that things as simple as not having the right safety equipment when working can have in someone’s life. I witnessed firsthand many of the issues surrounding farmworkers like people getting injured at work for not having some basic safety tool, or people passing out from heat exhaustion because they are having to wear a lot of clothes as prevention for toxic materials they are exposed to everyday.
Seeing farmworkers getting the resources they need through the use of an app that I’ve helped develop is perhaps one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.