People Deserve Better. |
“Americans would never let their dogs live like this! People deserve better.” |
Needs of the People
- baby clothing (summer weight)
- childrens' clothing (summer weight)
- men's and women's jeans
(men need smaller waist sizes
- especially 32,34 inch waists) - long sleeved cotton shirts
- washing machines
- bicycles
- soccor equipment
- towels
- sheets
- pillowcases
Please send these items to:
Reverend Patrick O'Connor, OSFS
c/o Our Lady of the Guadalupe Catholic Church
207 South 9th Street
Immokalee, Florida 34142
About the People | The Needs of the People (detailed)
About the People
IMMOKALEE – a strange word, for an unusual place. It is a Seminole Indian
word which means “My Home.” And the place is a town in South Florida
that is home to the poorest community in our nation. Some 42,000 residents populate
the town of hard working, yet poverty stricken agricultural workers and their
families. Many thousands more live in camps in outlying farms and in nearby,
smaller communities. People who visit the homes of the poor in Immokalee are
– at first - shocked, angry, and in disbelief. Tears are a common reaction.
A couple visiting Immokalee for the first time, after walking through the camps
of broken down trailers, shacks, and small cement homes – which are decrepit,
filthy, and overcrowded with men, women, and children – shook their heads
in sadness and said “Americans would never let their dogs live like this!
People deserve better.”
This statement has given birth to a charitable fund – similarly called People Deserve Better. This fund directly benefits the poorest members of the community of migrant farm workers who live in Immokalee, and in other parts of South Florida with the most basic of human needs – food, shelter, clothing, medicine, and other emergency care, as well as non-emergency care. Government agencies are often unable or unwilling to assist members of this community. Here in the community of Immokalee are found both documented and undocumented workers – a majority of Spanish speaking Mexican and Guatemalan laborers, and a smaller minority of Creole speaking Haitians - performing hard labor that no one else in our country is willing to do.
If you are wondering how to pronounce the word Immokalee – it rhymes with
“broccoli”, which is one of the few crops the workers do not pick
in South Florida. When there is work – the men and women work 7 days a
week – up to 15 hour days; picking tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash, oranges,
grapefruits, and other produce throughout the state – providing our nation
with much of our winter fruits and vegetables. The work in the Florida sun is
hot, back breaking, and non-stop. During the weeks between harvests, the workers
languish – with no income – hoping and waiting for nature, and the
large farming corporations, to bring forth the fruit that sustains them. The
pickers perform the majority of all labor associated with the farming, but receive
very low wages – a mere fraction of the profits for the crop. During the
three months of summer, over half of the workers travel North and West to pick
tomatoes in New Jersey and South Carolina, berries in Maine, peaches in Georgia,
strawberries in Virginia, apples and grapes in New York, as well as all other
produce throughout the Eastern seaboard states and the Midwest. You may already
have seen many of the people of Immokalee working in the fields – in the
summer, outside of your town, or while driving down a country road to the beach
for your vacation.
The life of the migrant worker of Immokalee is hard, poor, and dirty. The workers
are taken advantage of by many: landlords charge obscenely high rents (as much
as $600 a week!) to live in squalid and filthy trailers and shacks, without
air conditioning, with poor plumbing, and bugs. Often the men live 12 to a trailer
to afford the rents. They sleep on torn, dirty mattresses provided by the landlord
without sheets, thrown on the floor, one next to another. There is no other
furniture in the trailer – nothing else can fit. About half the population
of the town is young men who come to work, but there are also numerous families
– and many, many children – who live in these same conditions –
sometimes worse. Rents are paid weekly, and if the workers cannot pay the rent
one week they are charged hefty penalties for each day that follows until the
rent is paid.
Stores often charge higher prices for food articles that are necessary or preferred by the workers – tortillas, rice and beans, bottled water and sodas – knowing that they are far away from competition, and the workers have little or no means of transportation to go elsewhere.
Though there is a clinic on the outskirts of town, medicine and doctor’s
visits are expensive, and often out of the financial reach of families and workers
in Immokalee. Many people try to weather out illness rather than go to the doctor,
often growing more sick with very serious illnesses.
Needs of the people:
MONEY is necessary to survive. The workers barely make enough to pay their rent, and buy food. Often emergencies arise that are beyond their simple budgets. Often a decision such as buy medicine for a sick child or buy food for the family for that week must be made. The People Deserve Better Fund distributes money to families in need who have exhausted all other avenues and possibilities for help in the community and from among other agencies. 100% of all money donated to People Deserve Better is distributed directly to the migrant poor in Immokalee, and South Florida.
CLOTHING is expensive and wears out in a matter of days with work in the fields. The workers must depend upon the generosity of others to give them second hand clothing – especially the men who always need new work pants, and long sleeve shirts (to protect them especially from the insectides and chemicals sprayed on the tomato plants, and orange trees – which burn the skin, and cause sickness). Though men’s clothing is most needed, all clothing is a help – including women’s clothing, and especially clothing for babies and children.
BICYCLES are always a highly prized item in Immokalee. Most of the workers
do not drive, and must travel around town on foot. A bicycle is a favorite mode
of transportation, and a big help when food shopping, running errands, visiting
friends and family after work, or even getting to work in the morning. But sadly,
even the cost of a bicycle is beyond the means of a farm laborer in South Florida.
These are only a few of the needs the People Deserve Better migrant fund tries
to meet. People Deserve Better is a fund under the auspices of the Oblates of
St. Francis De Sales, a non profit organization – Catholic Religious Congregation.
Your financial donation is tax deductible.
Click the button below to make a donation online. |
Or to make a donation by mail, please make checks payable to People Deserve Better, and send
to the following address: |
