A grant to Samford University infused more money into the Chandler Mountain Project (CMP), a four-year-old program to assist migrant workers in several ways, including spiritual health.
“This summer a research project assessing the migrant’s perception of his or her spiritual health was begun through part of a grant from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation given to Samford,” said Elaine Marshall, assistant professor in the Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, which helps volunteer staff the center with student nurses. Eli Lilly and Company is an international pharmaceutical company.
“The Samford in Mission Faith Vocation and Learning grant is a five-year program from the Lilly Foundation, and we were fortunate to get a piece of it to fund the CMP this year. The grant provides activities and resources for all Samford teachers on campus and for students to relate their vocation to their faith,” she said.
Marshall said graduate nursing students participated in the project, which included collecting data about the migrants. Thirty-three migrant workers were surveyed and offered Wal-Mart coupons in exchange for their cooperation in the study.
“We hope to further develop and continue this research to include the Hispanic population in the Birmingham area,” Marshall said.
“Assessing and providing spiritual care is a very important part of the nursing profession, especially here in Samford’s School of Nursing,” she said. “The survey uncovered some needs of the migrant workers that we will continue to provide.”
Health services including tuberculosis skin care and lead testing were also performed this year at the on-site East Coast Migrant Head Start Project (ECMHSP) day-care center, directed by Javier Morales.
The ECMHSP, a federally funded program, was established more than 20 years ago to provide continuity of Head Start services to children of migrant farm workers in St. Clair County.
This marks the fourth consecutive summer that Marshall and Jane Martin, assistant dean of the school of nursing, have coordinated the project in St. Clair County. Chandler Mountain is in the town of Steele, some 20 miles south of Gadsden, off Interstate 59.
The CMP uses Samford nursing students to provide health services to Hispanic migrant farm workers from June through September two days a week from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m.
The project is most viable June through September, during tomato season.
“At this time, the population swells by an additional 1,000 to 2,000 people. This sudden growth is directly attributed to the Hispanic/Latino migrant workers who head to the mountain for work,” Marshall said.
The project began following a telephone call to the school of nursing from a concerned citizen living in the Chandler Mountain community. The citizen reported families with small children sleeping in their cars.
The project developed from a community assessment and initially had only a few tables and chairs. Now it provides a clinic site open two days a week at an old school.
“The CMP began as a medical missions project by nursing faculty from Samford University who were supplied with a grant from the Baptist Health System. However, soon after arriving on the mountain, we realized that residents were in need of much more than health care,” Martin said. “Some were hungry and others needed clothes. The Project has slowly evolved and will continue to change as the needs of the community change.”
Health services include health screenings, health advice, health education, treating primary care problems and assistance with physical referrals, prenatal care, basic needs and access to additional health care.
There is a process for physician referral for those in need of serious medical attention. In addition, the CMP works jointly with the local health department in testing, tracking and treating communicable illnesses. Clothes, especially men’s work clothes, are collected and available for anyone in need. Canned goods and water are provided, and farm workers are warned of the seriousness of dehydration.
When the services began, the CMP set up tents in front of the ECMHSP along Chandler Mountain Road. Later, the CMP was housed in an old school house in front of ECMHSP.
This building had no water or electricity but was more conducive to filling CMP’s needs than the tents.
“Samford University students, undergraduate and graduate, are also given the opportunity to earn class and clinical credits by taking a nursing elective course,” said Amy Armstrong, a second-year Beeson Divinity School student who will graduate this year.
Armstrong explains, “I serve as an interpreter and was able to take migrant workers to doctor appointments. I took women to prenatal visits, assisted Elaine and just helped the people. We primarily showed them that someone cared about them.”
Armstrong has her undergraduate degree in Spanish and religious studies and lived in Peru for a couple of years doing mission work. “I learned a lot through the CMP. I felt I was needed, and I really enjoyed helping them.”
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