Lydia Naylor is the staff nurse. She talks to the farm owners and crew chiefs to find out when crews will be arriving so she can conduct on site health screenings. She checks workers’ blood sugar levels, blood pressures, and does urinalysis tests. Clinic staff are trying to get their female clients annual Pap smears to prevent cervical cancer, she said. Naylor also does mission work in Honduras with her husband, she said.

Clapp said the belief that immigrants come to the U.S. looking for a handout is not true of her clients. She said the migrant workers work really hard and seldom complain. They complain if they don’t get to work a full 12 or 14 hours, so they will make enough money to send home to their families, she said. There’s often no work where they live, she said, and if there was, they would only make a pittance, not enough to live on.

“They are not demanding but very grateful for everything we do for them,” Clapp said.

Many of her clients are shy about coming to the clinic because they don’t know what to expect. She said they try as far as possible to treat their problems at home and won’t come in until they are seriously ill.

One of her dreams, Clapp said, is to publish an informational booklet called “Informa Te,” or Teach Yourself, which will include information about housing, health care, laws, culture, etc. She also wants to educate clients on alcohol and depression because that’s a big problem they’re seeing at the clinic.

“It’s very confusing,” she said, “living in a strange country where they don’t speak the language. Many of the workers don’t have family here. They may have other problems going on. It can be depressing.”

Getting a driver’s license can be a big obstacle for her clients because of language and cultural differences, Clapp said. Laws aren’t as strictly enforced where they come from, and bribery and corruption are common. Their problems are compounded when they end up being arrested, she said.

The clinic has a food pantry, which they use to help clients feel comfortable about coming back, Clapp said. They provide some staples like Maseca, or corn flour for making tortillas, beans, rice, toothpaste, and other hygiene items. The food and some clothing is donated by individuals and area churches, she said. Kids from some of the churches collect bags of food and clothes for clinic personnel to give workers. What they need most is men’s clothing, she said.

The Migrant Farmworker Clinic gets support from various agencies like LAMP, Telamon Corporation, New Horizons, health departments in surrounding counties, Valdosta Technical College, Valdosta State University, America’s Second Harvest of South Georgia Inc., and others, Clapp said.

For more information, call (229) 559-4552.