A Community Health Worker ' s Dispatch from Arizona

April 05, 2018She was starving. She couldn ’t help but eat the tomato.This week, we ’re featuring personal stories from frontline health workers all over the world. It’s just one of the ways we’re celebratingWorld Health Worker Week 2018.Here they tell us about the clients who ’ve moved them, the moments that keep them coming to work each day, and what it’sreally like to provide health services on the front lines.Today ’s post featuresMaria Valenzuela, a community health worker who serves some of the most vulnerable communities in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States through the organizationEsperan ça. Today she ’s using her story and the storytelling training she received through Medtronic Foundation and IntraHealth International to advocate for policy changes that will help her community.Learn more about what she ' s  accomplished in the video above and read her inspiring story below.A community health worker ’s dispatch from Arizona, United States:In 1979, my mother brought me to this country, chasing the American dream.We settled into a disadvantaged community in Arizona. My mother was young and determined to make a better living for herself and her 6-year-old daughter. We lived in a trailer. I remember the water from the shower head would fall right over the toilet. My bed was stuck to the wall and so was the kitchen table.I remember one hot, summer day, my mother gave me five dollars and sent me to the store. The walk was about seven blocks, but...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Source Type: news