Colquitt County Migrant Farmworkers' Clinic
by Mary Kay Mitchell

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Vegetables are a vital 650-million-dollar crop in Georgia, second only to Vidalia onions in value. Since vegetable production is so labor-intensive, the farm economy depends on large numbers of healthy workers.

Financial and cultural barriers often prevent farm workers from getting the health care they need. In Colquitt County, there is a health clinic that is tackling the problem.

Kent Hamilton employs seasonal workers from Mexico, who are in the U.S. on Guest Worker visas. Hamilton says that providing these workers with accessible and affordable medical care is essential. But getting adequate medical attention is difficult because these low-income workers don't have health insurance and can't speak English.

That's why Hamilton and his workers turn to the Ellenton Health Clinic. Operating with federal grants, the Ellenton Clinic provides primary health care services for people who earn more than 50 percent of their income from farming. But that's not all the Ellenton Clinic has to offer. Founder and Director Cynthia Hernandez enthusiastically describes a broader vision that goes well beyond the exam rooms she can see from her book-filled office. She's convinced that the key to improving rural health care is to take a preventive health approach.

Hernandez and her co-workers have expanded the clinic into a one-stop shop for community services. The Clinic joined with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service and the Georgia Department of Human Resources. The Clinic offers diabetes control programs and programs to help farm workers and their families prepare healthy food. There's also an after-school program for children of the farm workers.

Hernandez hopes that similar collaborations in rural communities all across Georgia will result in the healthiest farm workers and the strongest farm economy in the nation.