Posts in category: Recent Clinics

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This fall The Botanical Bus: Bilingual Mobile Herb Clinic is coming together with Lideres Campesinas, Nuestra Comunidad and La Plaza: Nuestra Cultura Cura in the organization of a farmworker clinic.  

In Sonoma County, Latine residents make up 1/3 of the population and almost 80% of COVID-19 infections. Our most vulnerable essential farmworkers, domestic workers and day laborers face overcrowded living conditions, unsafe work environments and limited access to financial relief and medical care. Without an intervention, infection rates will increase as farmworkers and other low-wage, immigrant workers experience higher rates of co-morbidities for COVID-19, such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stress, hunger and malnutrition.

In the face of this disproportionate, deepening health crisis, we will organize 20 clinics over 12 weeks of grape harvest at vineyard worksites, day labor street corners, COVID-19 testing sites and family resource centers throughout Sonoma County. The mobile clinic will provide 500 Latine immigrant farmworkers, domestic workers and day laborers with: 

• Herbal care kits for immunity, stress relief and respiratory health
• COVID-19 personal protective equipment and hand sanitizer
• Evacuation kits and emergency preparedness trainings
• Manual pain therapy including massage and acupuncture
• Tamales and medicinal herb agua frescas

 The Farmworker Clinic will engage promotora community health workers in the establishment of trust and culturally relevant care. We will provide a comprehensive health resource referral guide to connect our Latine community with long-term, continuous care and ongoing opportunities for empowerment.

See our clinic schedule

We invite you to take ACTION today!

• Our community can support our work with fiscal and in-kind donations
• Sonoma County vintners can partner with us to host a clinic at your vineyard
• Holistic health practitioners and translators can sign up for a shift to volunteer your services
• Farmworkers, domestic workers and day laborers you are always essential and we are here for you

Please email at info@thebotanicalbus.org for more information. Thank you for rising up as a leader in our community and taking action to get our bilingual mobile herb clinic on the road!

Este otoño, The Botanical Bus: Bilingual Mobile Herb Clinic se unirá con Lideres Campesinas, Nuestra Comunidad y La Plaza: Nuestra Cultura Cura en la organización de una clínica para trabajadores agrícolas.

En el condado de Sonoma, los residentes latine constituyen 1/3 de la población y casi el 80% de las infecciones por COVID-19. Nuestros trabajadores agrícolas, domésticos y jornaleros más vulnerables se enfrentan a condiciones de vivienda abarrotada, entornos laborales inseguros y acceso limitado a asistencia financiera y atención médica. Sin una intervención, las tasas de infección aumentarán a medida que los trabajadores agrícolas y otros trabajadores inmigrantes de bajos salarios experimenten tasas más altas de comorbilidades por COVID-19, como asma, diabetes, obesidad, enfermedades cardíacas, estrés, hambre y desnutrición.

Frente a esta crisis de salud desproporcionada y cada vez más profunda, organizaremos 20 clínicas durante 12 semanas de cosecha en los viñedos, las esquinas de los jornaleros, los sitios de prueba de COVID-19 y los centros de recursos familiares en todo el condado de Sonoma. La clínica móvil proporcionará a más de 500 trabajadores agrícolas, trabajadores domésticos y jornaleros latinos inmigrantes:

• Botiquínas herbales para la inmunidad, el alivio del estrés y la salud respiratoria
• Equipo de protección personal COVID-19 y desinfectante de manos
• Entrenamientos de preparación para emergencias
• Acceso a terapia manual del dolor, incluidos masajes y acupuntura
• Tamales orgánicos y agua fresca de hierbas medicinales

La Clínica Campesinx involucrará a las promotoras de salud en el establecimiento de confianza comunitaria y cuidado culturalmente relevante. Proporcionaremos una guía de referencia de recursos de salud integral para conectar a nuestra comunidad Latine con cuidado continua a largo plazo y oportunidades continuas de empoderamiento.

!USTED puede tomar acción hoy!

• Nuestra comunidad puede apoyar nuestro trabajo con donaciones fiscales y de suministros www.thebotanicalbus.org/donate
• Los productores de uva del condado de Sonoma pueden asociarse con nosotros para organizar una clínica en su viñedo
• Los traductores y profesionales de la salud integral pueden inscribirse en un turno para ofrecer sus servicios como voluntarios
• Trabajadores agrícolas, trabajadores domésticos y jornaleros, ¡ustedes siempre son esenciales y estamos aquí para ayudarles!

Envíenos un correo electrónico a info@thebotanicalbus.org para obtener más información. ¡Gracias por levantarse y tomar acción para poner en marcha nuestra clínica móvil bilingüe de hierbas!

(Español abajo)

Last week we gathered online in our separate homes to learn about “La Cosecha”, the harvest of medicinal herbs, from promotora de salud, Maria de Lourdes Pérez Centurión. The workshop brought us together on Zoom, 15 live square computer screens merged while some sipped their coffee, some prepared food for their families, and others gathered themselves for busy workdays ahead. Meeting people where-they-are-at has been at the heart of our work since the foundation of our mobile clinic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, meeting people online in their kitchens, parked cars, and workplaces has ironically brought us closer to this commitment.

The power of this new connectivity was made very clear in our La Cosecha workshop. Participants joined us from Michoacán, Mexico and Cuidad de Mexico, San Francisco, California and all corners of Sonoma County. Our international workshop, originally scheduled for one hour, turned into three hours. We discussed the phases of the moon, the movement of water inside plants and ultimately the movement of water or life force inside all of us. We were moved to tears as we shared traumas and looked to each other for affirmation of our collective strength as women and mothers.

We found ourselves in the “same room”, a group of BIPOC and Latine women of all ages, creating a safe place to explore our power, our boundaries and opportunities for self-care. Our connection to the earth, plants and each other remains strong.

While we look forward to reconnecting in person, we are moved by the resiliency of our Latine community.

Una Historia de Resiliencia Latine: Conexión Durante COVID-19

La semana pasada nos reunimos en línea en nuestras casas separadas para aprender sobre la cosecha de hierbas medicinales, de la promotora de salud, María de Lourdes Pérez Centurión. El taller nos reunió en Zoom, 15 pantallas de computadora cuadradas en vivo se fusionaron mientras algunos bebían su café, algunos preparaban comida para sus familias y otros preparaban para los ajetreados días de trabajo que se avecinaban. Conocer a las personas donde se encuentran ha sido el núcleo de nuestro trabajo desde la fundación de nuestra clínica móvil. Durante la pandemia de COVID-19, conocer gente en línea en sus cocinas, automóviles estacionados y lugares de trabajo, irónicamente, nos ha acercado más a este compromiso.

El poder de esta nueva conectividad quedó muy claro en nuestro taller de La Cosecha. Los participantes se unieron a nosotros desde Michoacán, México y Ciudad de México, San Francisco, California y todos los rincones del condado de Sonoma. Nuestro taller internacional, originalmente programado para una hora, se convirtió en tres horas. Hablamos de las fases de la luna, el movimiento del agua dentro de las plantas y, en última instancia, el movimiento del agua o la fuerza vital dentro de todos nosotros. Nos emocionamos hasta las lágrimas cuando compartimos traumas y nos miramos mutuamente en busca de la afirmación de nuestra fuerza colectiva como mujeres y madres.

Nos encontramos en la “misma habitación”, un grupo de mujeres BIPOC y Latine de todas las edades, creando un lugar seguro para explorar nuestro poder, nuestros límites y oportunidades para el cuidado personal. Nuestra conexión con la tierra, las plantas y entre nosotros sigue siendo fuerte. Si bien esperamos volver a conectarnos en persona, nos conmueve la capacidad de resiliencia de nuestra comunidad Latine.

Our first workshop in the community garden at Corazon Healdsburg felt like picnic lunch with old friends. We stared in the garden, harvesting Calendula flowers for next month’s medicine oil making workshop. Dozens of radical Calendula plants have broken free of their garden beds to take over the space, which consists of 20 something plots tended by neighborhood families. So far we have yarrow, california poppy, white sage, valerian, epazote, lemon balm, peppermint, and borage growing in abundance. Jose and Mercedes, who live around the corner, come everyday with their son to water.

At midday, we moved into the shade to exchange recipes and remedies for Type II Diabetes, a chronic disease that affects 11% of Latinos in Sonoma County. We focused on recent studies that show the correlation between stress and blood sugar. After scrawling cycles of pancreatic insulin production and cortisol levels on a small chalkboard, we exchanged family recipes for nopales asados (grilled cactus), verdolagas chile verde (purslane in tomatillo salsa), and tomatillo salsa with raw garlic . Nopales, verdolagas, and raw garlic are traditionally used in Mexico to reduce blood sugar levels in type II diabetics. We shared a potluck lunch of frijoles a la olla (beans from the pot), kale salad from the garden, watermelon and te de jamaica sweetened with local honey.

Over lunch we shared our stories of overcoming health challenges such as cancer, back pain, and chronic stress. In one particularly moving testimony of roots, resilience and recovery, a participant shared her process of realization that a traumatic event in her early childhood had led to chronic migraines and recent life threatening illness. There is powerful healing in this opportunity to share our stories and our paths to recovery.

We are so thankful for the open hearts and hardworking hands of the community gardeners and herbalists that are coming together for the Botanical Bus wellness workshops at Corazon Healdsburg!

One year after the devastating fires, we gathered with the Latine community at La Luz Center in Sonoma to nourish our lungs and heal from grief. We circled up in the kitchen, to share evacuation testimonies still alive with trauma and to prepare a batch of fresh Yerba Santa syrup.

Yerba Santa, a shrub native to California grasslands (especially those touched by wildfire, as its seeds germinate with heat), supports lung health by toning respiratory tissue. It’s sticky leaves are full of volatile oils that act as a powerful expectorant, helping to balance and soothe wet lung conditions. Yerba Santa is traditionally used as a sacred herb to free the breath and release deep sadness.

Lu Lu shared that she harvests fresh Yerba Santa and packs it in warm compresses for a wet cough. Others agreed that it makes an excellent addition to broths.

We mixed the Yerba Santa, with elderberry, rose hips, and thyme over low heat and the crowded kitchen filled with its warm, spicy scent. Stirring in local, raw honey, we passed around the finished syrup for all to try. Yerba Santa STRONG! An immunity syrup made in community that empowers our resilience and recovery!

Our growing group is making plans to visit eachothers gardens, share medicinal plant seeds, and prepare more community medicine.

In partnership with Sanación del Pueblo (Town Healing), a project of North Bay Organizing Project, we gathered in Roseland, Santa Rosa to learn about environmental toxins and how we can empower healthy communities.

Roseland is a 65% Latine neighborhood that ranks lowest in well-being of all Sonoma County neighborhoods according to the American Human Development Index (Burd-Sharps et al., 2014). Residents face limited access to secure income, healthy food, clean air, green spaces, and affordable healthcare.

Together we walked from the Dollar Store, to Roseland Elementary, across the creek, to Land Paths’ Bayer Farm, stopping to notice the pesticides sprayed along sidewalks and to discuss the quality of lunches served at our schools.  We circled up, standing strong as a group of women committed to the health of our children and confident in our ability to do something about it. Si se puede!

We celebrate recent victories banning the spraying of Round Up pesticide in Santa Rosa City Parks and the unanimously vote by Sonoma County Supervisors to reduce use of synthetic pesticides on public land countywide. https://www.conservationaction.org/our-victories/

After our walk, we got busy chopping artichoke leaf, orange peel, dandelion root and milk thistle seeds, all plants that grow around us that can help our bodies eliminate toxins.  The bitter leaves and roots support our liver in its innate clean-up functions.

Did you know the liver contains a unique enzyme system that co-evolved with plants, and that this system can detoxify just about everything we encounter now? Pharmaceuticals, pesticides, estrogens: Check! Rancid cooking oils, new car smell, stress hormones: Yup! Your liver breaks it all down.

The chopped plants were swept into jars, covered with organic cane alcohol and distributed to the group for safekeeping.  Herbal medicine making requires the plant to macerate for at least a month before being pressed out for use. A month later we would come together to share our medicine and move forward as a community advocating for health justice!