Project Clean Environment for Healthy Kids

Project Clean Environment for Healthy Kids is an environmental health education project, created by Farmworker Justice with support from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Border Health Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Research and Development, under the auspices of the Border XXI Initiative.

 The Project provides training to health professionals and promotores de salud (lay health educators) from both sides of the U.S. - Mexico border to address environmental hazards that pose risks to health. It was initiated in four pairs of border communities in 1999: McAllen, Texas – Reynosa, Mexico; Yuma County, Arizona and San Luis, Mexico; El Paso, Texas – Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; and the Coachella and Imperial Valleys of California and Mexicali, Mexico.

 To facilitate the peer education component, a popular education style promotores de salud curriculum was developed. It addresses pesticide safety at home and at work; lead poisoning, water purification and safe waste disposal and ways to reduce the frequency and severity of asthma. The curricula and related handouts are available to be downloaded by clicking here.

 Educational brochures on asthma, lead poisoning and pesticide safety in English and Spanish are available in PDF format. Download them by clicking here for English and here for Spanish.  Be patient: these illustrated pamphlets may take a while to download.

 Promotores de salud are trained using the entire curriculum at 4 intensive one-day workshops. With supervision from Farmworker Justice and its partner community-based organizations (CBOs), the promotores then provide peer education to members of their communities and other border residents.

 The health professional curriculum and training events focus on the recognition, management and reporting of acute and chronic pesticide-related health problems. Workshops are organized by Farmworker Justice in conjunction with a local migrant and community health center in the communities where the promotores are active and one or two other border cities. The principal trainer for these workshops is the internationally known pesticide expert, Dr. Marion Moses. Dr. Moses has compiled a reference manual on the common causes of pesticide exposure, recognizing and managing acute poisoning cases and an analysis of the epidemiological literature concerning the association between pesticides and cancer, adverse reproductive outcomes, asthma and neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease. The reference manual is available to be downloaded by clicking here.