Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are on the ground in Immokalee, Florida, helping support 15,000–20,000 migrant farmworkers who have continued to provide essential labor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our teams are working in close collaboration with local partners on public health education and supplementing local testing efforts as well as providing non-COVID-19 medical consultations through community-based mobile “virtual” medical clinics.
 

MSF first learned of the situation in Immokalee after being contacted by CIW, a local human rights organization with a long history working in the community. At the end of April, we sent a team there to assess the situation and quickly realized that health education and testing activities needed to be ramped up immediately. And then we got to work.

Over the last three weeks, we have conducted public health activities in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and English to promote healthy behavior and social distancing. Our teams have also run five mobile clinics that have tested 126 people, with significant support from the Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida. The initial results show high rates of positivity, indicating ongoing community transmission of the coronavirus.

"While confirming more positive cases might sound alarming, the fact is persistent testing and ongoing health education is the only way to break the chains of transmission and stop this outbreak. Testing should be accessible to every person at a convenient time and place, in their native language, and in a safe environment." — Adi Nadimpalli, medical doctor and MSF project coordinator in Florida

MSF will continue to augment testing efforts and support contact tracing, providing other options for farmworkers who can’t easily get away from their work to get tested.

In addition to COVID-19 testing, we’re also providing free tablet-based telemedicine consultations for unmet general medical needs in private kiosks, as part of our mobile clinics. These mobile clinics provide a safe space for people to ask questions about their health and receive accurate information to reduce stigma and misinformation about the pandemic and other health issues.

These are difficult times, to say the least. Here in the United States and around the world, we’re focused on supporting those working with vulnerable communities who lack access to the resources they need to protect themselves and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you’re in a position to give right now, your generosity could help save lives. By giving monthly, you help ensure our medical teams—and the partners they support—can access the tests and the personal protective equipment required to operate clinics and continue the fight against the novel coronavirus and other emergencies as they emerge. Will you make your first monthly gift to Doctors Without Borders so we can continue to help send medical aid where it’s needed most?

We’re so grateful for your support—and we’re wishing you all the best.