Free condoms for Plant City farmworkers: A nonprofit responds to Roe overturn
WIMAUMA — Paola Suárez recalls the difficulties with her unplanned pregnancy in 2017. She was 18, and nobody in her family told her about the right to terminate her pregnancy.
The daughter of a Mexican farmworker couple, Suárez, now 23, said she had no one to turn to.
“That’s why it’s important to have options and information,” Suárez said.
Like many farmworkers, the Plant City woman has come to rely on local nonprofits for help of all kinds. Suárez joined some 150 farmworker families last week at a community event arranged by nonprofit Colectivo Árbol in Plant City where they were offered not only groceries, fresh produce and clothes but condoms for women and men.
“It’s an idea that came before the Supreme Court decision”, said Isaret Jeffers, founder of the nonprofit, based in Tarpon Springs, referencing the court’s ruling last month overturning Roe v. Wade. “We don’t want to be in the middle of the debate, but we want to give an option to our people to take control over their body.”
The weekly event is held next to a strawberry field as a way to support minorities and to speak to rural women and men about the importance of sex education.
Jeffers said few feel the pain as keenly as farmworkers.
One of them is Rufina Samalloa, 40, from the Mexican state of Chiapas. Samalloa is a single mother of four children between the ages of 7 and 15. She said her life might have been different if someone had given her the information she needed in time, such as the use of condoms as a useful tool for preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
“I’m not a person who supports abortion, but there are other ways to avoid pregnancy,” Samalloa said.
Anaí Rentería, 28, has worked in the fields of Wimauma and Plant City since she was 20. A wife and a mother of one who was born in Mexico, Rentería said public events where everything is discussed are critical among minorities who work in fields and groves across the country.
“Working in the field is hard and many times there is no time to look for information. These people at least come to us,” said Rentería as she picked up a little bag of four condoms, food and personal care products from the Colectivo Árbol event.
The daughter of Mexican farmworkers, Jeffers said the idea of distributing condoms came as they started to organize vaccine events during the first year or so of the pandemic. Her group also ran initiatives from Orlando to Plant City to ensure farmworkers and their families had access to free masks to reduce transmission of COVID-19.
Jeffers said everything is more difficult for farmworkers because they can’t find contact information, they don’t have a computer — and most of them don’t speak English.
“Because of that I believe that it is more important to work with the community and talk to them directly about prevention and education, so they can understand more about sexuality,” said Jeffers.
Colectivo Árbol is planning to work closely with farmworker leaders in Tampa to hand out fliers and host talks. During the last two months, Jeffers has been working to deliver reliable information and free condoms among the region’s Hispanic community.
“Prevention is the key to everything,” said Jeffers. “If we understand its importance, we are going to see progress.”
With the fall of Roe, talking about birth control in Spanish helps promote a deeper understanding of prevention, said volunteer Rosy Pérez, 45, born in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Five years ago Pérez started working with Colectivo Árbol as a volunteer to outreach to the farmworkers and the Hispanic community.
A mother of a teen daughter, Pérez said she learned ‘too late’ to use pills and other tools as effective methods of contraception. She said an abortion can be a solution for many, but not for all women.
“It wasn’t for me, but the point is that you should have to know that there are more options”, said Pérez. “And one of them is a condom”.
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