Thread: Chance meeting launches new career helping Hispanics

Gee I wonder how many are ILLEGAL! I thought illegals could not get medicaid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/i ... xml&coll=2

Chance meeting launches new career helping Hispanics for Colombia native who moved to the United States Breaking old barriers
Monday, November 28, 2005
MIKE CASON
News staff writer

ANNISTON -- Giovanna Minotta was working part-time at the Dollar General in Oxford in February 2003 when a chance meeting launched a new career helping other Hispanics.

A pregnant Hispanic customer, who spoke no English, asked the bilingual Minotta for help in getting admitted to an Anniston hospital to give birth. Minotta, 43, a native of Colombia, accompanied the woman to the hospital, translated for her and provided other help.

Within two weeks, 10 more pregnant Hispanics came looking for Minotta at the Dollar General. Within two months, 40 had sought her help.

"My life is an accident," Minotta said with a laugh.

Minotta saw a need and launched Operation Stork, a nonprofit corporation. It is one of many services offered by Be Latino.

The demand has grown from a surge of Hispanics into Alabama over the last 15 years. The state's Hispanic population grew 299 percent from 1990 to 2004, ranking seventh among states in rate of increase. Some northeastern Alabama counties near Anniston have seen some of the largest influxes.

Many immigrants arrive with no English skills, limited education and limited knowledge of how to get medical care and other services.

Helps Hispanics get care:

For a fee, Minotta helps non-English-speaking Hispanic women, many of them recent immigrants, get prenatal and postnatal care. Minotta helps them sign up for Medicaid and make payments to doctors, and provides transportation to appointments before and after they give birth.

The goal is to help women who would otherwise be unable to get the care and financial aid that's available and who often don't understand the need for it.

So far, Minotta has helped about 370 Hispanic women with their pregnancies.

Minotta said the service comes natural to her.

"I have been a leader all my life," Minotta said. "I like people. I like challenges. I like being able to use what I know to help somebody."

Minotta studied English in high school and at a university in her hometown, Medellin, Colombia. She married, had three children and became a business owner. But violence related to political unrest in Medellin led her to move to the United States in 1999. Her mother-in-law lived in the United States and helped her and her family obtain legal residency. She moved to Anniston because a sister-in-law lived there.

Minotta, 43, worked as a contract translator for the Public Health Department in Calhoun County. She volunteered to teach Spanish in a program for gifted students in Anniston schools.

Minotta didn't like the language and cultural barriers that divided Hispanic immigrants and native Alabamians.

In 2002, she formed Be Latino, with a goal of knocking down the barriers. Her first project was to organize a bilingual musical program. Fifty-seven children, many of them her students from the gifted classes, sang and danced in March 2003 at Jacksonville State University.

A powerful tool:

"Exposure to cultural arts can be a powerful tool to introduce children to new customs and open their eyes to new worlds," Minotta said.

Sue Crumley of Anniston, a retired accountant, learned about Minotta from that 2003 musical and has volunteered for her since.

"I met her and talked with her and really liked what she was doing," Crumley said. "She's just one person, and she's trying to do everything and the need is so great."

The chance encounter with the pregnant Hispanic women at Dollar General led Minotta to broaden the goals of her organization.

Minotta rents an office in a house on Leighton Avenue near downtown Anniston. She offers free classes in English as a second language and in Spanish. She has two translators who work under contract, but no employees.

Families pay a $75 annual fee to obtain a broad array of services, including transportation, job referrals, housing referrals and help filling out forms and other documents.

Pregnant women pay $745 to enter the Operation Stork program, operated in conjunction with the North Alabama Women's Center in Anniston.

Part of the fee is passed on to providers to cover other costs. The service continues after birth, helping with regular pediatrician checkups, immunizations and other needs. Medicaid pays for deliveries.

Minotta has help from other agencies and the community. KidOne Transport helps with rides to medical appointments. Buster Miles, a Heflin car dealer, and Habitat for Humanity each donated a van to her organization.

Wants to do more:

Minotta wants to do more. She's started a program to teach Hispanic youngsters the importance of volunteerism. She is working with the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama to help women cope with and avoid domestic violence and become more self-sufficient. She wants to open branches of her organization, which already serves many clients who live outside Anniston.

Minotta said it wasn't her plan to live in Alabama and deal with the deep-rooted problems faced by other Hispanics.

"I think God has a plan for everything you do," Minotta said. "It's not probably what you want, but it's better for you."

E-mail: mcason@bhamnews.com

oh my gawd-

Brain Flash: Perhaps we should protest her exclusionary and Racist behavior to white and african american citizens?
I mean isnt it Racist to have an organization that only helps illegal latinos?
yep- Illegals don't cost anything- there are many americans who cant get medicaid - yet illegal mexicans can come here to have their anchor babies

I thought illegals could not get medicaid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thelma - I think you hit it with "anchor baby". I just did some checking on medicaid eligibility. Apparently it is slightly different for each state and was overall fairly complicated but from what I could see for North Carolina, here I live, other than two exception, illegals can not get medicaid. But I believe once the child is born, it is eligible for the benefits.

For a fee, Minotta helps non-English-speaking Hispanic women, many of them recent immigrants, get prenatal and postnatal care. Minotta helps them sign up for Medicaid and make payments to doctors, and provides transportation to appointments before and after they give birth.

Minotta wants to do more. She's started a program to teach Hispanic youngsters the importance of volunteerism.

I see. Volunteerism for a fee.

So for a fee she shows illegals how to steal from taxpayer funded programs and medical care.

Apparently the author of this piece thinks this is a great idea.

Originally Posted by CountFloyd

So for a fee she shows illegals.........

The article says hispanics. You assume they're illegal based on nothing other than the color of their skin.

The article also says:

Many immigrants arrive with no English skills, limited education and limited knowledge of how to get medical care and other services.

Arrive from where, I wonder?

Dear Man Et all-
I did a google search on operation stork/ minotta etc and found a newsletter put out by the govs -
http://www.earpdc.org.newsletter/march%202004.pdf
on page five - it states that a guatamalen couple who speak no english - use her services to deliver a baby boy- at the local health place-
it also states they are working in the community-
so she has signed up 400 illegals for goverment paid births- also- those 400 births mean 400 new citizens ,
who are automatically elligble for food stamps / medical/ wic and education.
at the taxapyer expense- in the meantime- illegals who subsidzed by the united states -send money to their country of orgin - further draining the american economy .
and yes , no one is asked their immigration status in applying for medicaid/

I met a Honduran (not Hondurean) girl who spoke no English. She was legal. Actually I've known more than a few Hondurans who spoke little or no English. They were here legally. You assume they're illegal based on nothing other than the color of their skin. Legal status involves more than that.

Originally Posted by Man

I met a Honduran (not Hondurean) girl who spoke no English. She was legal. Actually I've known more than a few Hondurans who spoke little or no English. They were here legally. You assume they're illegal based on nothing other than the color of their skin. Legal status involves more than that.

There will be assumptions of people's legality, based on nothing other than there are now 20 million illegal aliens here, who happen to be Hispanic. Isnt it a shame, that illegal aliens have messed it all up for alot of people?
Immigrants who use legal methods to live in the United States, need to assimilate quickly. Its a requirement.

Originally Posted by butterbean

Isnt it a shame, that illegal aliens have messed it all up for alot of people?

There has been hatred based on skin color in this country every since its inception. Illegal immigration didn't cause this.

Immigrants who use legal methods to live in the United States, need to assimilate quickly. Its a requirement

FYI: Assimilation is not a requirement for immigrants.