Mexico: Saltillo, Casa del Migrante Saltillo

Project Title: Assessing Food Security and Dietary Quality in Latino Migrants in Active Transit through Mexico

Project Description: This project is focused on examining food security and dietary contexts among Latin American migrants transiting overland in Mexico. This is a CBPR project of the Migration and Nutrition Epidemiology (MaNE) group in collaboration with the Casa del Migrante Saltillo, a migrant shelter in Saltillo, Mexico (state of Coahuila), and is part of ongoing work with a multidisciplinary working group (METIAB) which includes community partners in Mexico, Academic partners in Mexico and at Columbia, and a UN organization, with support from the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia. The Migration and Nutrition Epidemiology group (MaNE), based in Mailman School of Public Health, aims to examine diet and food-related exposures to further our understanding of chronic disease in underserved Latino populations in Mexico, Northern Manhattan, and the Bronx. The goal of this APEX is to pilot the validation of an instrument for measurement of food security in a statistically informative convenience sample of migrants in transit, a highly vulnerable population whose needs are poorly understood. The ultimate destination of this population is the US, thus understanding their exposure to key social determinants of disease will impact their ultimate wellbeing in the US and is thus highly relevant to health equity in the US, particularly in cities where large proportions of the population settles. The instrument was previously piloted by the multidisciplinary working group and a student from the Columbia institute of nutrition and revised and adapted to be more informative. The goal of this APEX is to conduct an expanded pilot of the revised version of the instrument, now including components of nutrition and water security, and conducting a pilot validation of the instrument, including conducting focus groups with potential participants. This practicum targets students interested in examining food security and nutrition security among populations in overland transit in Mexico, and interested in participating in CBPR work. Students would have a comprehensive experience collaborating with our community partner in Mexico and a CBPR research team involving academic partners and the public health institute in Mexico and international organizations. The student will receive mentoring from the collective working group including Mailman faculty, faculty at the Mexican Public Health Institute, and at the shelter from faculty from another academic collaborating institution in Mexico (Colegio de la Frontera Norte) who will overlap with the student in Saltillo at the shelter. Additionally, the shelter staff will be available and present to support the student.

Student Role: Students will be responsible for data collection over a period of approximately 3 months  in Saltillo, Mexico at a Migrant Shelter. Prior to going to the migrant shelter, students will participate in intense training starting in the spring in New York, and then at the Mexican Public Health institute outside of Mexico City (Cuernavaca). Once at the migrant shelter, data collection will involve long days or evenings of data collection, some data entry, and will require constant communication with the team at CUMC.  During that period the student will be given meals and offered volunteer staff housing within the shelter. The shelter has a longstanding history of hosting international ‘volunteers’ / interns from multiple health and non-health care related disciplines in Europe and Latin America. Prior to going to the field students will spend considerable time (several weeks) preparing for the field work, learning about measurement of food security, about measurement of diet, migration, and about administering the study instrument (in person). The student would participate in trainings and meetings in person and remotely, and training in redcap data entry and export. After the field work, students will be expected to complete data entry for data collected.  Although most work could be done remotely, the student would be expected to spend small amounts of time intermittently in the team’s offices at Mailman. Students would prepare a report with descriptive data analysis of the data that was collected. More complex data analysis would be possible depending on the analytic skills and interests of the student.

Student Participation: In person

Travel Location(s): Cuernavaca and Saltillo, Mexico

Number of Students: 1