A street team of health Promotoras, or promoters, is continuing to go door-to-door providing healthcare outreach in Immokalee.
Katie Bollbach is the Executive Director of , or PIH, in the United States. The nonprofit provides healthcare in the poorest areas of developing countries. It began its work in Haiti, and over the last 30 years has grown to work in 12 countries.
鈥淭he idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world. And that is, sort of, the founding idea of PIH,鈥� said Bollbach.
In early 2020, Bollbach explained, the organization felt called to assist communities in the United States after seeing the persistent spread of COVID-19 and the challenges local healthcare systems were facing to combat infection rates, specifically in underserved areas like Immokalee.
Immokalee is predominantly a migrant farmworker community. It鈥檚 estimated that during the pandemic continued to work with little support. In June 2020, Immokalee鈥檚 test positivity rate was , according to data from Doctors Without Borders.
鈥淲e knew that COVID-19 was hitting Immokalee incredibly hard early in the pandemic, and in fact, throughout the last 2 and a half years, and really affecting farmworkers in particular in an incredibly acute and disproportionate way,鈥� said Bollbach.
Bollbach said before 2020, Immokalee was already facing severe health disparities, such as a lack of access to healthcare information, health services, and transportation. And farmworkers live and work in incredibly crowded conditions, increasing their risk of illness and infection. that half of the farmworkers are under- or un-documented, resulting in the fear of requesting any outside assistance.
PIH deployed a street team of Southwest Florida Promotoras to embed in trusted, local organizations in Immokalee, including the , faith-based nonprofit , and the 鈥� all in an effort to bring public health information directly to residents.
Today, PIH is still in action in Immokalee. Michelle Velazco grew up there and is now a community health worker with Healthcare Network in partnership with PIH. She says her work helps bridge the gap between the community and their access to healthcare for not only coronavirus information, but chronic care resources as well.
鈥淭hey often don鈥檛 know how or where to get treatment, so that鈥檚 where we come in, you know," said Velazco. "Letting them know, or even helping them get appointments in Healthcare Network or providing them with other resources that they may need. Transportation, food, you name it. Even if we鈥檙e not directly partnered with them, we鈥檙e able to help them get that care.鈥�
Velazco said the street team has expanded to general healthcare outreach, especially after their success visiting residents door-to-door and holding community testing and educational events during COVID.
鈥淲e would have often like 300-400 people come to get tested at our events, so we saw that the need was so great that we had to expand and try to target other communities and other conditions such as hypertension and diabetes," said Velazco. "Giving that information, giving the resources, handing out personal protective equipment, masks, gloves, they just all really seem grateful for that. So, I鈥檓 happy that we鈥檙e able to do more now.鈥�
Despite any hardships from the pandemic, Bollbach says that building new programs and immobilizing new resources in communities like Immokalee provides a pathway to build a better healthcare model.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a playbook on how to proceed, we just need to keep our foot on the gas nationally and locally to build from this moment and these learnings to a better future,鈥� said Bollbach.
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