What a year!
2017 has been a very busy year for AFOP’s Health & Safety Programs helping empower the farmworker community. As this year comes to an end we want to express our deep gratitude for these farmworkers, and of course for all farmworker advocates, service providers, trainers, and supporters.
This year our goal was to train 28,000 farmworkers. However, with our amazing network of trainers around the country, we nearly doubled that to 43,689. Thanks to the support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, were exceeded every one of our proposed goals. Here are our top 2017 accomplishments:
- 14,302 farmworkers trained in Worker Protection Standard (WPS)
- 14,819 farmworkers trained in Heat Stress Prevention (HS)
- 9,590 farmworkers trained in Limiting [pesticide] Exposure Around Families (LEAF)
- 4,800 farmworker women trained in Pesticide Exposure & Pregnancy (PEP)
- 3,791 farmworkers trained in Tractor Safety (TS)
- 1,187 farmworker children trained in Jose Learns About Pesticides
- 913 employers trained in WPS, HS, LEAF and TS
- 218 trainers certified by AFOP in WPS, HS, LEAF, PEP and TS
- 2,713 training sessions provided by our network of trainers
- 12,123 long-sleeve shirts collected during National Farmworker Awareness Week in March
- 1,779 farmworkers trained in our annual Heat Stress Prevention Training Marathon in July
- 62 blog posts on farmworker health and safety topics
- 37% overall increase of followers and interaction in our social media platforms
- 3,713,000 radio impressions from 151 radio stations sharing our radio PSA’s on pesticide safety
- Tractor safety bilingual training video released (English/Spanish)
WHAT’S WAITING IN 2018?
- Training: We will continue providing pesticide safety and heat stress prevention training to as many farmworkers and growers as we can through our nationwide network of trainers.
- Awareness & Advocacy: We will continue our efforts to fight for farmworker health and safety justice, empower the farmworker community with education and resources, and use our social media platforms to create awareness in the general public about issues farmworkers face. We will also continue to fight for fair farmworker child labor laws through the Child Labor Coalition and our social media platforms.
- Publications:
- Blog: Every Monday and Wednesday we will publish a new blog post with a variety of topics affecting the farmworker community.
- Children in the Fields (CIFC) Annual Publication: CIFC will create a publication around topics affecting farmworker children.
- Special Events:
- March 25-31: Annual National Long-Sleeve Shirt Drive during National Farmworker Awareness Week. Long-sleeve shirts help protect workers from pesticide exposure and extreme heat exposure. If you want to be part of this effort email forti@afop.org.
- May 21 – 25: Annual Healthy Pregnancy Month Training Marathon, where we empower farmworker women with knowledge about preventing pesticide exposure while pregnant, and how to avoid risking the health of the unborn child.
- July 16 – 20: Annual National Heat Stress Prevention Training Marathon to create awareness among agricultural workers, employers, and farmworker children of heat-related illnesses.
- June – September: Migrant & Seasonal Farmworker Children Essay and Art Contest We believe farmworker children have a story to tell. Our annual Essay and Art Contest is a platform for this, where winners get an all-expenses paid trip to our annual conference to present their work for our diverse members.
2017 was a year full of records and achievements. The road to farmworker justice is long and full of challenges, but we’re ready to kick off 2018 fighting as always for the health and safety of the agricultural workers and their families who feed us. We know we can count on you for your continued support: cheers to you, farmworker community – and to an exciting 2018!
Health & Safety Programs 