Texas A&M University’s Center for Housing and Urban Development and the Mexican consulate in Brownsville have teamed up to provide health and social service information in the Brownsville area. The center is part of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.
At an April 11, 2008 ceremony at the consulate, Cándido Morales, head of the Mexican government’s Institute for Mexicans Abroad, representatives from CHUD’s Colonias Program, and consulate staffers announced the partnership.
The program, called Windows to Health, was established to disseminate health information to Mexican citizens who are in the process of becoming United States citizens, said Oscar Muñoz, CHUD deputy director.
CHUD will rely on its promotoras to spread the word in Brownsville about topics such as immunization, nutrition, and on maladies common in the Hispanic population, such as diabetes, cancer, and obesity.
“With a flow of anywhere from 400 to 500 people per week at the consulate it makes it easy for promotoras to disseminate a whole lot of information to a lot of people all at once,” said Muñoz.
The effort in Brownsville comes on the heels of an already-successful partnership between CHUD and the Mexican government in El Paso, where promotoras have been working withthe “Windows to Health” program for two years.
“It’s going so well, we were asked if we would consider more,” said Muñoz. In addition to the Brownsville consulate, discussions are underway to link CHUD to Windows to Health programs in two more consulates.
