August 19, 2002
BGCT agency promotes healthy starts in colonia
___RIO BRAVO COLONIA--Anita and Jose thought they had a foot in the door to a prosperous American life, but reality has slammed the door on their feet more than once.
___The couple, who live in a bordercolonia in Webb County, near Lardeo, now have a new lease on life, thanks to help from Baptist Child & Family Services of San Antonio.
ANITA stands in the doorway of her modest home with her four children. Her husband, Jose, built the house piece by piece as they saved money. The family has found much-needed assistance through Healthy Start Laredo, a ministry of Baptist Child & Family Services of San Antonio.
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas agency has joined with Texas A&M University and Gateway Community Heath Center to provide outreach, health care and social services in the Rio Bravo colonia through a program called Healthy Start Laredo.
___Colonias are rudimentary villages located on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. Residents build homes out of anything they can find--boxes, pallets, tin--in these communities without paved roads, running water or sewer services.
___Anita and Jose, for example, worked hard and saved money to buy a small piece of land in the Rio Bravo colonia. Even though he worked from early in the morning until late at night to support his family, Jose found time to build their first home, one wall at a time. Jose and Anita were able to live in the one-room structure, although it did not include bathroom or kitchen facilities, by the time their first child was born.
___When their second child came along, Anita and Jose were evicted from their property. The landowner claimed they had not been making their payments. The family was forced to move into an even smaller one-room home, where they struggled financially, physically and emotionally. Because Anita had saved every receipt from their payments to the landowner, the family eventually was able to return to their homestead.
___The experience took its toll, however. With most of their resources drained by legal expenses, the family had little money or food. The children lost weight and became depressed.
___Jose works such long hours that Anita and the children are left alone in the colonia until late at night. She is frightened at night and longs to live in a community that is clean, healthy and safe.
___The statistics are stacked against Anita and her children in other ways as well.
___While colonias have the second-highest fertility rate in the nation, 40 percent of women living in the colonias receive little or no prenatal care during pregnancy. Children in the colonias are 3.5 times as likely as children living outside the colonias to contract hepatitis. Lacking basic knowledge about health and safety, many parents practice "curanderisomo," home remedies that range from ineffective to extremely dangerous.
___Since coming to the colonias with a 39-foot custom mobile medical clinic, Healthy Start Laredo has served more than 200 disadvantaged families. Programs target prenatal care, early childhood immunization and health-care education as well as other services.
___After less than a year of operation, the program has achieved notable successes, according to Laura Echeverria, outreach worker for Healthy Start Laredo.
___Anita, for example, was passive and withdrawn when she first started receiving services from Healthy Start Laredo. After several home visits, she opened up and became actively engaged in all the programs offered by Healthy Start, Echeverria said.
___Anita now has four children, ages 7 months to 4 years, and all are receiving medical care and social services. Anita is learning parenting skills, and the children are up to date on all their immunizations.
___Anita also has learned to seek help when she needs it. When she was referred to other community resources for additional services, she made the contacts herself and exclaimed, 'I wasn't even nervous to make those phone calls.'"
___Echeverria finds great personal satisfaction working with Anita and her family. "It has been very rewarding to help them begin to have the life they dreamed of once," she said.
___Of all the dreams Anita has expressed, her strongest desire has been to live with dignity again. With the help of Texas Baptists and Healthy Start Laredo, this dream is becoming a reality.
The Baptist Standard
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