What can be done?

A reminder of something that can be done to help the residents of the colonias...

On February 17, 2008, a group of people provided free medical checkups and educational materials to over 60 residents of Robstown and the surrounding colonias. Local doctors and medical students from the UTHSCSA Frontera de Salud provided free check-upsl; Christus Spohn was present to allow access to a health care community if needed; AmeriGroup and sCHIP set up for insurance information; Humana came to offer free glucometers and additional information; flu and pneumococcal vaccines were offered to those who needed them; and rapid HIV screening per the new CDC protocol to screen everyone over 13 years old as well as additional testing for high risk individuals.

Colonia Residents Want Feds to Improve Drainage System

KIII-TV Channel 3 aired a report from the Tierra Grande colonia on May 3, 2008. The residents are frustrated over the flooding problem. They said county and state leaders have failed at fixing the drainage issue, so now they're trying to reach out to the federal government. A staff member of Senator Cornyn's office came to visit and talk with residents with Lionel Lopez.

Colonia residents concerned about creek

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times ran an article on Petronila Creek back on April 27, 2008. The article is on the need to clean up the creek, the effects of dumping, how some residents are reporting both sores on children's arms and sickened livestock, and possible effects on the area with the opening of the federal prison just north of Lost Creek.

While the article is very informative, the posted comments are equally telling. There seems to be a lack of knowledge of who actually lives in the colonias, what kind of lifestyles they live and why they are there.

If nothing else, this article lets us know that we have a long way to go in educating the public about what colonias really are and why they exist.

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• The article was commented on by Texas Prison Bid'ness.
• The public meeting mentioned in the article regarding the prison is at 7pm on Thursday, May 15 at the Holiday Inn Airport for more info read here.