{"id":191120,"date":"2024-02-01T09:16:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T19:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=191120"},"modified":"2025-01-06T15:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T01:12:26","slug":"kona-migrant-farmworkers-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/02\/01\/kona-migrant-farmworkers-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Kona migrant farmworkers gain better healthcare due to students\u2019 research"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_191134\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-191134\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/manoa-social-work-claudia-maria-msw-students.jpg\" alt=\"Hartz and Cisneros-Zavala\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"size-full wp-image-191134\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/manoa-social-work-claudia-maria-msw-students.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/manoa-social-work-claudia-maria-msw-students-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/manoa-social-work-claudia-maria-msw-students-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-191134\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Claudia Hartz and Maria Alejandra Cisneros-Zavala<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> is home to one of the nation\u2019s most diverse populations, yet minority communities\u2019 needs are often overlooked. <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> County, home to thousands of non-English-speaking migrant farmworkers, plays a vital role in the economy with 4,220 farms producing 48&#37; of the state\u2019s agricultural sales. Workers on these farms, however, often struggle to access healthcare due to language barriers and the complexity of the system.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This group of hard-working people do so much for our county, and they deserve to receive quality services.&#8212;Cisneros-Zavala<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Two University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa <a href=\"http:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/thompson\">Thompson School of Social Work &#38; Public Health<\/a> students, Claudia Hartz and Maria Alejandra Cisneros Zavala, are helping to address these issues as part of their employment-based practicum experience. Through a collaboration with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hicommunityhealthcenter.org\/\"><span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> Island Community Health Center <\/a>(<abbr>HICHC<\/abbr>), they are engaging in a health needs assessment, which aims to identify and understand the unique healthcare needs of the migrant seasonal farmworker population in and around Kona.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I am interested in finding ways to support the farmworker population,&rdquo; Cisneros-Zavala said. &ldquo;This group of hard-working people do so much for our county, and they deserve to receive quality services.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Needs identified<\/h2>\n<p>Surveying 62 county farmworkers, the assessment highlighted the following pressing needs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bilingual services<\/li>\n<li>On-site\/same-day medical appointments<\/li>\n<li>Affordable dental care<\/li>\n<li>Counseling services<\/li>\n<li>Clinic to address identified needs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In response to the survey&#8217;s findings, <abbr>HICHC<\/abbr> plans to establish a clinic that offers culturally competent, affordable and high-quality care specifically designed for farmworkers and their families. <\/p>\n<p>Wendy Lum, field education coordinator at the Thompson school, oversaw the students\u2019 placement.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Claudia and Maria are pioneers behind this clinic idea,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;They have had incredible reach to the Kona community through their bilingual skills and lived cultural experience.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Personal connections fuel dedication<\/h2>\n<p>Both Hartz and Cisneros-Zavala share a personal connection to the farmworker community. Their grandfathers were Braceros, Mexican migrant farmworkers crucial to the <abbr title=\"United States\">U.S.<\/abbr> economy during <abbr>WWII<\/abbr>. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I see my grandfather in many of the people I meet and help,&rdquo; Hartz said. &ldquo;He missed being home, but sacrificed anyway, coming to the <abbr>U.S.<\/abbr> to work to support his family. I see that happening [in <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> County]. Both women and men leave family behind while they pick coffee here.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Hartz is a 2023 alumna of the Thompson school <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/thompson\/msw\/\">Master of Social Work<\/a> (<abbr>MSW<\/abbr>) program and Cisneros-Zavala plans to graduate with her <abbr>MSW<\/abbr> this spring.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Maria Pou<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claudia Hartz and Maria Alejandra Cisneros-Zavala are addressing these issues as a part of their employment-based practicum experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[165,1466,1467,1363,241,1600,244,596,9],"class_list":["post-191120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-health","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-manoa-excellence-in-research","tag-manoa-research","tag-public-health","tag-public-impact-research","tag-social-work","tag-myron-b-thompson-school-of-social-work","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191120"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208833,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191120\/revisions\/208833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}