LAKE PARK — The Migrant Farmworkers Clinic in Lake Park recently received $93,989 through an Increased Demand for Services (IDS) grant.

The IDS grants are awarded to enhance health care access for underserved Georgians, according to a press release. The money is part of the stimulus funding funneled through the Georgia Department of Community Health’s State Office of Rural Health. Organizations in other counties also received part of the state’s total award of $6,964,291.

Migrant Farmworkers Clinic Inc. operates clinics in Lake Park and Statenville, said Joe Tillman, executive director.

“There is a tremendous need in our area for the services our outreach workers provide,” said Tillman. “They provide much more than medical encounters for the farmworkers. They also have relationships with other agencies who provide clothing, food and other basic necessities farmworkers are sometimes forced to do without.”

Outreach workers from the Migrant Farmworkers Clinic accompany farmworkers to doctors appointments to provide translation services, which can be invaluable to the farmworkers and their families, Tillman said. Because Migrant Farmworkers Clinic Inc. operates two clinics, the current staff isn’t always available to meet the high demand for these services. The additional staff provided by this funding will allow the clinic to have an increased presence in the farmworker community, he said.

Some of the additional funding will be used by the clinic to hire an additional licensed practical nurse. Tillman said it will also enable the clinic to provide additional educational materials on subjects like proper nutrition, AIDS and HIV awareness, diabetes, high blood pressure, pregnancy, and STDs. The educational services provided during outreach improve the quality of life for the farmworkers and their families, he said.

The increase in outreach activity will mean an increase in associated costs for things like gasoline, outreach supplies, and medical supplies. More patient registrations and medical encounters will necessitate the purchase of two more office computers, Tillman explained.

Charles Owens, executive director of the Georgia Department of Community Health’s State Office of Rural Health, said, “The awarding of the IDS grants allows the State Office of Rural Health to continue its efforts to build a healthier Georgia by empowering communities to strengthen and maintain the best possible health care using existing resources. The IDS grant will make a significant impact on improving health outcomes and creating and retaining jobs in these communities.”

Julie Clapp is the clinic coordinator for the Lowndes County Migrant Farmworker Clinic in Lake Park. Clapp said the clinic helps farmworkers from various South American countries, as well as Mexico and Haiti. To qualify for the program, workers must show pay stubs demonstrating that they have worked in the fields for the last two years and earn at least 50 percent of their income from farmwork, she said.

“It takes a lot of compassion to work here,” Clapp said. “Clients can overwhelm you with their issues, problems with language, transportation, culture, and so on. We’re here because we care and we want to help.”

The clinic is a primary care facility, Clapp said. Outreach workers register the farmworkers and do their best to educate them on how to care for themselves and how to get treatment if they have health problems. Funding for the program comes from the federal government and is channeled through the state, she said. Their main office is in Cordele. They get approximately $250 per year per client, she said.

Anyone can come to the clinic for treatment, Clapp said, but those who are not migrant farmworkers will pay a slightly higher fee. Most of their clients are men between the ages of 19 and 51, she said, many of whom come from Miami, Fla., which is their base. Their Haitian clients are mostly older but very sweet, she said. Their ages range between 50 and 70, and they are still working in the fields. The Haitians are considered black, not Hispanic. They speak Creole and French.

“Thank God they have friends, roommates and co-workers who speak English very well. We speak English to the interpreter, and the interpreter speaks either Creole or French to the patient,” Clapp said.

Blacks are more likely to have problems with diabetes and high blood pressure, she said. Clapp also works as a court interpreter. South American countries each have their own dialect, many of them mutually unintelligible, she said.

Clapp said clinic staff recently treated a client who had a stroke and suffered partial paralysis on one side of his body. Sylvia Sanders, who said she does a little bit of everything at the clinic, transported him to South Georgia Medical Center for treatment, helped him with intake paperwork and got him admitted. Sanders said he’s doing much better now.

Lydia Naylor is the staff nurse. She talks to the farm owners and crew chiefs to find out when crews will be arriving so she can conduct on site health screenings. She checks workers’ blood sugar levels, blood pressures, and does urinalysis tests. Clinic staff are trying to get their female clients annual Pap smears to prevent cervical cancer, she said. Naylor also does mission work in Honduras with her husband, she said.

Clapp said the belief that immigrants come to the U.S. looking for a handout is not true of her clients. She said the migrant workers work really hard and seldom complain. They complain if they don’t get to work a full 12 or 14 hours, so they will make enough money to send home to their families, she said. There’s often no work where they live, she said, and if there was, they would only make a pittance, not enough to live on.

“They are not demanding but very grateful for everything we do for them,” Clapp said.

Many of her clients are shy about coming to the clinic because they don’t know what to expect. She said they try as far as possible to treat their problems at home and won’t come in until they are seriously ill.

One of her dreams, Clapp said, is to publish an informational booklet called “Informa Te,” or Teach Yourself, which will include information about housing, health care, laws, culture, etc. She also wants to educate clients on alcohol and depression because that’s a big problem they’re seeing at the clinic.

“It’s very confusing,” she said, “living in a strange country where they don’t speak the language. Many of the workers don’t have family here. They may have other problems going on. It can be depressing.”

Getting a driver’s license can be a big obstacle for her clients because of language and cultural differences, Clapp said. Laws aren’t as strictly enforced where they come from, and bribery and corruption are common. Their problems are compounded when they end up being arrested, she said.

The clinic has a food pantry, which they use to help clients feel comfortable about coming back, Clapp said. They provide some staples like Maseca, or corn flour for making tortillas, beans, rice, toothpaste, and other hygiene items. The food and some clothing is donated by individuals and area churches, she said. Kids from some of the churches collect bags of food and clothes for clinic personnel to give workers. What they need most is men’s clothing, she said.

The Migrant Farmworker Clinic gets support from various agencies like LAMP, Telamon Corporation, New Horizons, health departments in surrounding counties, Valdosta Technical College, Valdosta State University, America’s Second Harvest of South Georgia Inc., and others, Clapp said.

For more information, call (229) 559-4552.