Hello! My name is Chela Vázquez.
Hello! My name is Chela Vázquez. In 2018 I began working for UMASH as project coordinator and trainer for the Promoting Safety and Health for Immigrant Dairy Workers program. My previous experience working with immigrants in California, Southeast Asia, and Minnesota has taught me that agricultural workers face similar challenges around the world. Agricultural occupations are some of the most dangerous in the country, posing both environmental and occupational health risks to immigrant agricultural workers and their families. According to The Status of Farm Safety in Minnesota by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (2017), although only 2% of Minnesota’s workforce was engaged in agriculture, it accounted for more than 30% of workplace fatalities.
I am training Spanish-speaking immigrant workers on dairy farms using a bilingual health and safety training curriculum called Seguridad en Las Lecherías: Immigrant Dairy Worker Health and Safety. This curriculum was developed by Migrant Clinicians Network and the National Farm Medicine Center in Wisconsin, both members of UMASH, and has been adapted for workers in Minnesota. The training curriculum addresses health and safety issues in dairy farms, with a special focus on improving the occupational health and safety of Minnesota’s immigrant workers on dairy farms.
We are recruiting dairy farms for this project
Call Chela Vázquez
612-625-4578