Access to health treatment is a challenge in isolated agricultural communities, where most farmworkers may be uninsured and many have limited English language skills. Digital reporter Sabine Galvis traveled to southern Arizona and conducted interviews in English and Spanish with Latino agricultural workers, nonprofit volunteers and migrant health experts to understand the barriers workers face to access health care.
She not only exposed the problems farmworkers face, but wrote a solutions story about a health education center that is providing better health care access in rural areas and creating a community for the local workers who were disconnected before.
Neighbors who didn’t know each other now gather for soccer matches, neighborhood meetings and to visit the first communal playground in town. The digital story with photos by Megan Marples first appeared on Cronkite News, and then in news outlets across the country, including the Miami Herald, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Associated Press. For this multimedia package, broadcast reporter Anikka Abbott produced a story that was aired nationally by “PBS NewsHour.”