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Thank you for your interest in the Support the Emory Farmworker Project. This campaign has ended, but you can still support the Emory Farmworker Project by making a gift here, today!
The National Center for Farmworker Health estimates there are over 40,000 agricultural workers each year in Georgia alone, and nearly two million across the country. Agriculture is a billion-dollar industry in the United States and relies heavily on the labor of immigrant and migrant farmworkers. Despite their massive role in the agricultural industry, farmworkers often lack access to even basic medical care. The nature of their work, access to transportation, poverty, food insecurity, and many other social determinants of health act as barriers to care.
The Emory Farmworker Project is a service-learning project run by the Emory Physician Assistant (PA) Program where PA and other health professions students, faculty, volunteers, and community partners travel to South Georgia for two weeks in the summer and one long weekend in the fall to provide free healthcare to migrant farmworkers.
We go directly into the fields with pop-up clinics to bring care directly to the workers and increase access. The project began 28 years ago and has grown to include the work of more than 250 people across Emory and our partner organizations and now serves close to 2,500 patients each year. We aim each year to continue to evolve the project to improve care, increase the number of patients we can care for, and provide more interprofessional education to our students.
Your generous support will allow us to provide enhanced care to the farmworkers through medications, supplies, point of care tests, and non-medical but essential items like hats and socks.
Additionally, you support this program to continue as the #1 interprofessional education experience at Emory and help us train the next generation of health professions students with a focus on collaborative practice and health equity.
By giving a gift to the Emory Farmworker Project, you support lasting impact:
Emory Farmworker Project “not only bring[s] health, well-being, and happiness, but you also bring us unity.”
-Juan Felipe Herrera, U.S. Poet Laureate and son of migrant farmworkers, at the project’s 20th-anniversary celebration in 2016
“Along comes the Emory Farmworker Project in 1996. What a difference it has made in the health and lives of my folks and the thousands of farmworkers it has served since then... The project really did plant the seed of inspiration for my eventual decision to pursue a career in medicine. From being a patient of the Emory Farmworker Project, to being the son of its beneficiaries, to being a volunteer over the years of the project, to now speaking about the project, what a privilege this really is.”
-Dr. Erick Martínez Juárez, UCLA neurology resident and son of migrant farmworkers, in his keynote speech for the PA Class of 2022’s Commencement
“I was touched when one of my patients shared that he was working on the farms this summer to save up money for his mother to have surgery. The Farmworkers we served work so hard and sacrifice so much to provide for their families at home.”
-Class of 2022 PA Student
Chronic Disease Management. Diabetes and Hypertension are common chronic conditions we see at the Emory Farmworker Project. Fifteen dollars can pay for 3 months of blood pressure or diabetes medication for a farmworker.
Farmworker Care Package. In addition to healthcare and medications, there is a need for clothing to help with comfort and safety while they work. A gift of $25 can buy a sun hat, 2 pairs of socks, and 2 pairs of underwear.
Pain Management. Due to the physically demanding and repetitive nature of their work, musculoskeletal injuries are common for farmworkers. They are by far the most common diagnosis at the project. $50 help cover the cost of a brace, reusable hot/cold pack, and 2-3 months of pain medication.
Shade. $100 can help buy two tents, which are essential for outdoor clinics that take place in the middle of June. Tents provide protection from the sun for the patients and volunteers during clinic. This also helps offset costs for students from having to provide their own tents.
28 Years of Service. This June will mark the 28th year of our project! Celebrate with a gift of $280 to help keep the project going for many years to come.