Click on any photo in this post to enlarge it or view a slideshow. But, with the absence of effective support systems, and given the horribly inequitable economy in which we live, outlawing child labor has meant that children are dying, and are not being educated, in record numbers.
Sound like a hard life? Add to it the fact that the migrant workers are treated like outsiders in most any community in which they work. It was heartbreaking to see. Loading a truck with produce Laughter and joy Traveling home from the fields Not feeling well During my trip to visit the migrant workers, there were still huge puddles of standing water on the roads, in the yards and fields. Many of the townspeople tell their children to stay away from the migrants; they call them filthy and stupid.
Can you imagine how long it must take to pick a bucket of chiles? Women work all day in the fields, then return home in the evening to cook and care for the kids.
Each of the ten or so of us on the trip that day paid pesos, money which is used to buy food, disposable diapers, baby formula, and basic medical supplies cough syrup, cold medicine, aspirin, first aid supplies , after paying the expenses of the van and driver. They have a gorgeous place, right on the ocean. The Lohmans and their driver, Ulises Gil Altamirano a retired engineer , do all they can to help the migrant workers. Helen has learned the hard way that the migrants do not like to wear shoes they wear huaraches or go barefoot , nor do the women wear slacks.
She has five volunteers who now help her. Ulises works as ambulance driver, interpreter, and lawyer for many of the migrant families. Despite having her arm in a sling, Brenda goes out three days a week every week to hand out nutritive biscuits and milk to the migrant children. Oh how they look forward to her visits! She has divided the town into four zones, and each of the days she goes out, she visits a different zone, in rotation.
