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‘We have to survive’: the women filling the gap in Texas borderlands’ medical deserts


Community health workers are stepping in to provide critical services and information in rural areas in Texas, USA, with few hospitals or doctors.

When Claudia Salazar and her family migrated to San Elizario, Texas, a small city in El Paso county, they settled into a colonia – informal, low-income housing often found in rural parts along the US-Mexico border.

But the remoteness of their new home soon presented problems – Salazar suddenly found herself in a medical desert. The nearest hospital is a 35-minute drive away. Even that is challenging to get to – the community’s mostly farm worker population works 10- to 12-hour days, and often lacks adequate time to travel for medical attention between workdays.

The lack of consistent medical access is just one of the many public health issues that colonias face, and a group of women familiar with the dynamics in this region thought of a relatively simple solution: bringing medical care to the people who need it most in these borderland communities. “Familias Triunfadoras has been really helpful since they provide a mobile unit clinic,” Salazar said. “That’s when we get a chance to visit a doctor or get a doctor’s appointment.”

Familias Triunfadoras is a San Elizario-based non-profit that is composed of women who step in as community organizers to connect residents like Salazar to resources they may not know exist. Their efforts to make healthcare more accessible in medical deserts like San Elizario has proven invaluable to residents.

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Source: The Guardian, 2 February 2023

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