Somewhere between Arizona and Sonora, a determined individual from the U.S. took the road less traveled.

This road often led to a borderlands community that has trouble getting basic resources.

It intersected with that of a woman in Naco, Mexico, on her own personal journey to help her neighbors thrive.

They believe that communities on the Frontera can be empowered to change their lives.

and they continue pushing forward to realize this dream.

Their personal journeys resume in Naco, Sonora just across the border from Arizona.

Over the years, the neighbors in the borderlands got to know one another.

Together, they built wellness centers in Naco, Sonora.

Their mission became clear: to empower families and strengthen the community.

Many generations came to the clinics for wellness education, basic screenings, women's health programs and more.

Lupita and the healthcare workers expanded programs for the Casas Saludables clinics.

They also met with agriculture and gardening experts in Sonora to plant community gardens.

The Harvest for Health community gardens were planted and garden director, Norma Bernabe and her crew gave home gardening instructions.

Tom and Lupita talked about ways to improve access to healthy foods.

They wanted to put fresh vegetables on the tables of more families.

Greater numbers of people in the area started growing their own food, not only for survival, but also for sustaining far more nutritious diets.

The core group reached out to experts in agriculture, nutrition, and community health.

Their journey wound through university campuses in Phoenix and Tempe.

We were introduced to Tom Carlson, the head of a local organization called Naco Wellness Initiative.

We always start with conducting a community assessment, listening to local key stakeholders, trying to determine which ideas they're most interested in collaborating on.

Our goal is always to deliver positive impact to the community, build resiliency, and really transfer knowledge and skills to the community so that they own these successes in the long term.

Yet, great barriers loomed.

A second monster-size border wall was under construction.

If that were not enough, the unthinkable happened...

The pandemic!

How will the people stay on course?

We were very excited.

We had all our equipment ready to go, and then three days before we were to leave, COVID hit!

The community was going to be serving us food.

They had a schedule of every night, you know, we were going to be there for three nights.

And what we ended up doing is still sending the supplies down.

Then we had a couple of the students, our native-speaking Spanish students.

We were able to put together an educational video with the idea that we would send that to Naco.

And the promotoras of the community, (which are the community health workers in Naco)... then they would learn the lessons, and they then were going to take the lessons to the children in the school.

This semester, we're working on providing lesson plans for the community because they have community gardens.

So, we're helping to reduce the diabetes incidents by teaching healthy eating.

I grew up on the border in a town called Nogales.

There is a Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona.

I was able to see the contrast differences between the two systems, not just the healthcare systems, but everything from legal, political to criminal.

And seeing how vastly different the two worlds that are connected along one border.

And so when I decided to pursue medicine, I made it a point to serve underserved communities because of my upbringing and seeing how people really don't have the same access to resources.

I'm from Yuma, Arizona.

It's a border town.

And coming from a border town and being of like Latino heritage, I think I'm just really connected to the reason why Global Resolve was trying to be part of the Naco team.

I'm very familiar with the health system in Mexico, like the health issues that Mexican families go through.

My involvement with the Global Resolve team included translating some of the lesson plans.

The books with ASU's lesson plans finally arrived.

You know, I sit here in my little casita looking out and, uh, see the border fence and the wall... the San Jose Mountains.

They all look so peaceful.

We could still maintain our connection.

The human connection is still possible, and that's a big deal.

It hasn't been a time where we've been shut off so totally.

Yeah.

we communicate electronically.

We do Zoom meetings and we do WhatsApp.

It's great that we have those, believe me, As the pandemic spread like wildfire, the border closed, blocking the road to well-being and the Casas Saludables Wellness Centers in Sonora were shut down.

COVID hit especially hard in border towns like Naco.

Around 25% of the residents were getting it.

With few jobs and little income.

many of Naco's poorest families could not buy food anywhere for months during the pandemic.

The one thing that we found we could really accomplish and actually would thrive... was the gardens.

Lots more families joined in and they produced an awful lot of vegetables and really healthy food at a time when there's dire need in Naco, there's so much hunger and people had less work to do even than before.

It's always been a rather poverty stricken area, but in COVID times, it's really, it's been terrible.

And so these gardens were a blessing in many ways, uh, producing not only the food that people needed, but providing some outdoor exercise, some healthy exercise.

So, it's been a blessing.

We felt that we've got a way to produce some significant food for these people who are in such dire need.

As spring and summer harvest times came around, the gardens became lifesavers.

In 2020, the borderlands experienced one of the lowest rainfall seasons in more than a century.

The gardens were not getting enough water... and more people in Naco were coming down with COVID.

It was the early stages of the pandemic.

Great uncertainty lingered.

People were frightened and avoided those with COVID.

An expansive one and one- quarter-acre project kicked off in 2020 and became known as Jardín San José.

A local businessman came to us and he said, "I've got this land, and if you'd like to use it, I know you're looking for a space.

You can use it, rent-free, and see what you could do for the people."

Señor Tavo Martan, a Naco businessman who owns the property, loaned the space to the grassroots group.

Thanks to the donation of a heavy-duty tractor, it became possible to prepare the irrigation systems and soils.

A cistern would be added on the property to store water.

The gardening project followed recommendations of research conducted through Barrett, the Honors College at ASU.

Amber Berns, an ASU Barrett Honors College graduate, delved into 19 international studies of third world health efforts and compared the results to Naco, Sonora.

In her research, Amber found that Mexico is heavily impacted by diabetes type 2.

More than half of the Naco Wellness patients had diabetes, so it became a high priority.

When we went to Naco, we took the time to visit with the local librarian.

We also took the time to go to a local market because we wanted to see what kind of foods people had available.

So we know that it is incredibly important to make sure that any health education that we bring to communities is locally relevant.

When people can access healthy foods, healthy behaviors, they're more likely to have a long, not just lifespan, but healthspan.

I am really passionate about helping underserved communities, people who don't have resources to healthcare or even basic medications.

I want to go the direction of prevention.

So, that is going to revolve heavily around education.

I believe that whiteboard videos is a really effective way to do that because it really takes that health literacy level and, you know, reading levels into consideration so people can watch a video and learn.

So, these whiteboard videos kind of fill that gap, uh, by addressing the culture, the language, and the literacy levels.

So this is applicable anywhere, not just in the United States, but globally.

By 2021,the promotoras took more steps to protect community health and well-being.

They got the vaccine and they started using ASU's whiteboard videos.

Some people say well-being is the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.

So many things can affect it from past events to attitudes, physical or emotional influences, and even environmental trauma.

These all make a difference.

That's why the core group keeps pushing forward on the road to well-being.

When the border reopened, Lupita, Norma and those from Naco Wellness, ASU students and volunteers, redoubled their efforts, The COVID pandemic raised awareness about the importance of public health.

COVID has really exploded the divide between the haves and the have-nots, and has really laid bare the inequities in health and healthcare that so many communities experience.

The residents were determined to improve health in their neighborhoods because ultimately, what happens in Naco could inspire communities in other places.

There are fewer complaints of hunger and greater interest in remaining productive.

Children, especially those involved with community gardens, show indications of improved development, alertness and performance in their schoolwork.

Adults with diabetes are experiencing lower sugar counts in blood tests, a result of healthier eating habits and supported wellness activities.

Since the pandemic, more people are talking and connecting about health.

University students and experts in climate are installing a weather station in the Jardín San José.

So it's great to be back in Naco after a long pause due to the pandemic.

But I think we're making some really good progress with the weather station and getting that installed today.

I mean, what do, what do you think, guys, about the type of information and, the utilization for this piece of equipment and what they're gonna get out of it.

Yeah, I think like the high school is definitely gonna take a lot out of it.

They're going to be able to incorporate the data they'll get out of it and apply it to the science side and mathematics, and apply it to like, real-life scenarios in case of extreme weather and stuff like that.

I think given that they don't have technology in their high school, I feel like this is a really good opportunity for them to just see how data can be applied in different areas.

How about you, Alex?

Absolutely.

I think some of the curriculum will be interesting to implement because without technology in some of the schools, it might be... a hard challenge to work around, but I think that's some food for thought... working in the future, and we can kind-of go over how some of those lesson plans might look.

But just in terms of the garden, I really think that some of the crop output might be improved and quality of production could be interesting.

I think we should do our best to lessen that difference in equality across the border in whatever ways we can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is a good start.

The word is spreading about Casas Saludables and the grassroots group.

People are asking, "How can we take what's happening in Naco and apply it to our community?"

I mean, you know, it's hard work.

People ask me about that a lot, and you just have to understand that there's infrastructure that goes with everything.

There's a totality.

I mean, I see wellness as, you know, uh, not just taking care of your health and in terms of what you eat and how you exercise, but it's the academic part of it.

And this is an extension of it.

Producing and developing food.

It's all one thing.

It's just all one thing.

I would love to see social enterprise develop out of this to help people earn a living.

You know, I think you can do it.

There's a way to do it.

It's gonna take a while.

It takes a system to make it function.

You shouldn't say, "Geez, that looks nice, let's do it..." without really taking the time and putting together the team of people that need to make it happen.

The lease on Jardín San José will be ending and the core group fears they may lose the property.

We start to build some things there.

And in that time, the, the owner Tavo Martan is very worried because every time we need more things in the land and we put more things.

And we add more buildings.

The group jumped into action to try to purchase the Jardín San José property.

Meanwhile, life goes on in this borderland community.

We work with all my community.

If you ask me if I know somebody in my town, I tell I know everybody and they open the door to Lupita Sanchez because they know sometimes when I knock the door, I come with a good news.

So that is my motivation, see that smile and that face and I contribute to a more happy life here in my community.

We closed this year, 2022, with the most very good news for the Jardín San José.

Now we are the owners.

We do all the documents in a Notary.

We're waiting for the title.

And finally Tavo gives that support to our organization.

He decided to give a good price for the land and Arizona Community Foundation awarded a grant to buy the Jardín San José.

Sometimes... it's the road less traveled that really does make a difference.

It might be a road through a U.S.- Mexico bordertown.

Maybe it winds through a village in tribal lands or other hard- to-reach places.

During one of the worst pandemics in modern history, along with drought and scorching-hot temperatures, the road to well-being became uncertain.

So we must look at our surroundings, our world, and ask ourselves, "How can we change lives for the better?

How can we make an impact?"