‘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 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. Their house was small, but had enough room for her four kids, and before long, it felt like home.

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.