Farmworker Justice’s work with migrant and seasonal farmworkers is supported by its role as a national capacity building assistance (CBA) provider.  Some health departments and community-based organizations who want to provide HIV/AIDS prevention services to migrant workers and their families need help acquiring cultural competence, tailoring programs to meet the needs of the migrant community, training outreach staff, and so forth.  Farmworker Justice specializes in work with migrants, and can assist and support the health departments and community-based organizations that serve this population both through provision of direct CBA and through coalition-building efforts. 

Many HIV prevention and care programs are not reaching migrants because they do not adequately address the cultural issues (i.e. language, attitudes towards illness and death) or socioeconomic conditions (e.g., lack of financial resources, lack of transportation) of this population.  To remedy this problem, Farmworker Justice brings together groups of promotores de salud (lay health educators) with local service providers so that they can work together to break down some of the barriers keeping migrants from using available services.  This coalition building helps ensure the availability of services to the largely non-English speaking, hard-to-reach migrant community, whose members need to access services during weekend and evening hours, at remote rural locations, and for little or no cost. 

AIDS and Migrants:  Solutions and Recommendations

The UNIDOS Capacity Building Assistance network, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has published a position paper on the most pressing issues surrounding migrant workers in the U.S. and HIV infection.   UNIDOS is available to assist community-based organizations and health departments develop and implement effective HIV prevention programs targeting this population.  For more information and to read the complete article please click here.  The UNIDOS Network includes Farmworker Justice, Rural Opportunities Inc., and UMOS.

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