ABAC’s College Assistant Migrant Program (CAMP) kicked off National Farmworkers Awareness Week at the Georgia state capitol. Over the past four years, CAMP, in collaboration with the Latino Community Fund (LCF), has educated members about the importance of advocacy, particularly within the Latino community.
The LCF website states, “The Latino Community Fund supports Latinx-serving and Latinx-led nonprofit organizations advancing democracy, protecting and building community, and facilitating economic opportunities for all.”
CAMP members Nolvin Velasquez and Wendy Gonzalez-Huerta shared their personal journeys growing up in farm-working families and how these experiences have shaped their identities. They also highlighted the significance of CAMP in their lives and future and underscored the need for farmworkers to have improved working conditions.
“Words cannot express how grateful I am for that opportunity. It is so important for me to be the voice of those who cannot be heard,” Gonzalez-Huerta said. “This experience really proves that you can do anything you set your mind to, but you have to put yourself out there; you have to build yourself up.”
CAMP assists students from an agricultural or migrant background in the transition to a college environment.
“CAMP allowed me to attend college, for which I will be forever grateful, and they assisted me for the first year, which is helpful because it set the foundation of my future career that, in the past, I did not think could be possible,” Velasquez said.
National Farmworkers Awareness Week is a week of action for students and community members to raise awareness about farmworker issues on campus and within the community.
ABAC CAMP was proactive in the lead-up to National Farm Awareness Week. Students gave away free tamales and aguas frescas to celebrate the start of National Farm Workers Awareness Week.
The program also held a long-sleeve shirt donation drive, accepting shampoo, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, bandanas, deodorant, socks, bug repellent, undershirts, and other items that farmworkers may need on a regular basis.
They hosted a screening of “The Harvest (La Cosecha)” to show farmworkers’ children’s contributions and as an homage to thank farmworkers for their hard work.
Velasquez said, “Next time you have something on the dinner table, wonder how that vegetable or fruit or whatever it is and what hands it has gone through, and thank a farm worker.”