The pandemic has exacerbated an already dire childcare gap in the farmworker community, forcing parents into taking their children to work in fields, plant nurseries and agricultural facilities.
Her 8-year-old and 10-year-old settle into chairs and use a hotspot to connect to the Internet. Her 4-year-old huddles over a notebook or iPad, sketching pictures and playing electronic games. Other farmworkers’ children join them, pulling out their laptops. Soon her eldest two are doing history or English exercises, logged into their classroom portal with classmates as farmworkers plunge their hands in water, rinsing off produce for eight hours near the makeshift classroom.
The coronavirus has created a distinct crisis for impoverished farmworkers across the country. Many live in rural areas with and rely on schools and specialized programs to watch their children while they work long hours in the fields; without those lifelines, parents have resorted to bringing their children to work, potentially risking their health and safety to maintain an income.
“We know that some children that are 8, 9, 10 years old are working in the fields,” says Mily Treviño-Sauceda, executive director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, a national organization that advocates for farmworker women. After a month of bringing her three children with her to an outdoor plant nursery near Miami, a 36-year-old undocumented farmworker from Guatemala quit. Because of her immigration status, she is ineligible for unemployment benefits. Her family needed her weekly $300 dollar salary, and she felt anxious about leaving her youngest in the care of her eldest. So two to three times a week this spring, she brought her children — aged 7, 12 and 15 — with her.
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