Holaa! My name is Lizbeth (Liz) Sarabia and I am a senior at NC State majoring in Criminology and Political Science. I am also a 2024-2025 Solidaridad Intern with SAF (Student Action with Farmworkers). SAF is a non-profit organization that works to promote a connection amongst students from various ages with farmworker families. Their mission is to spread awareness of the injustices that farmworkers face every day through hard working/living conditions and the fact that they receive little pay and no health care insurance for all the hard work that they put in. Our entire cohort will work together to raise funds that will benefit SAF’s mission to spread more awareness of the injustices that farmworkers face on a daily basis and educate more students through these internship opportunities in order to give students the opportunity to support and learn about the mission!
Growing up my mom worked in tobacco fields and I would see how strained she was coming from work everyday. She would get up early in the morning, would kiss us goodbye, and would head to what she knew was going to be such a long and tiring day. There would be days that she would take us to the fields to run some errands that she had to do there, and I would just see men constantly come out of the fields to throw up or pass out due to the heavy chemicals/pesticides that were continuously used on the fields. Other things that I would notice are the poor living conditions that farm workers had to live in as many of the homes were accumulating mold by the day and the fact that water had to be “boiled” in order to have access to clean water as there was a lack of clean water. My mom eventually would have to quit due to the fact that she could not work long hours as she had to take care of my siblings, and working the fields would require long work hours for once again very little pay.
To give you a better overview this is an article that talks about more of the injustices that farm workers continue to face on a daily basis:
For this fundraiser I will be using many resources to try to raise the funds for SAF and my outreach will be through the NC State campus community specifically through MASA (Mexican American Student Association) which is a student organization relating to Mexican-Americans which tries to spread awareness of the Mexican culture and the different aspects of life that affects this community of people and farmworker injustices affects this community in many ways. I will also be reaching out to my church community of Our Lady of the Rosary in Louisburg, NC which is located in a rural area that constantly experiences farmwork and there are many farmworkers there that can relate to these injustices.
The events that will be taking place with MASA at NC State are as follows:
- MASA x VOLAR: Noche de Cine y Creatividad
- Location: Caldwell Lounge at NC State
- Date: Tuesday, November 12th
- Time: 6pm-7:30 pm
- MASA x LPC: Charla de Chicano
- Location: Withers 130
- Date: Friday, November 15th
- Time: 4pm-5pm
The event that will be taking place with MASA and the church community is as follows:
- MASA’s Kermés
- Location: 35 Dyking Rd. Louisburg NC 27549
- Date: Sunday, November 17th
- Time: 11am-4pm
MASA's Kermés Pictures!
