Reporting

<p>The central California community of Kettleman City sits next to one of the largest toxic landfills in the country. Some residents think landfill toxins are to blame for air, water, and health problems, including a cluster of birth defects.</p>

<p>Racial disparity in baby death rates is not a new subject. It's a complex, insiduous, and, at times, inflammatory, issue. In my corner of the world, there are communities where the baby death rate is nearly three times the national norm.</p>

<p>Two communities, one urban, one rural, trying to improve the&nbsp;health of residents</p>

Awareness of the risks to children from not having a stable home also means that parents who are already desperately trying to juggle the demands of managing a life without an address, or a stable food supply, or often a phone, are also frantically trying to do what’s best for their kids, often under mind-blowingly stressful circumstances.

<p>Cities across the nation are building schools on contaminated ground, igniting grassroots opposition and straining already slashed school budgets with the costs of needed remediation. The practice is much more common that most people realize, and not just in the inner city. According to one study, one out of every seven rural school sites in California had to be cleaned up either before or after construction. School districts defend their use of industrial sites as safe and as a necessary step in redeveloping down-and-out neighborhoods. Yet parents and environmentalists worry that current regulations do little to protect the school children and may contribute to health, learning and behavior problem.</p>

<p>This piece focused on Los Angeles’ ethnic communities: How they are key to increasing organ donations and, on the other side, how they benefit from these life-saving procedures. I wanted to establish a human connection right away — to show how a donated organ can help an individual who is very ill, almost to the point of dying. Through my reporting, I’ve also learned that donation helps the donor family by providing consolation for the loss. As a number of donor families have told me: “My loved one lives on, helping another person to stay alive.” With the help of OneLegacy, the organ donation agency for the L.A. area, I made contact with a donor’s parents and the recipient of a donated kidney that brought him back to health. That gave me my lead. Then, I described how OneLegacy is working to raise awareness about organ donation in the area’s three primary ethnic communities: Latino, Asian and African American. Together, these groups make up more than 60% of the population served by OneLegacy in Southern California. With the help of OPTN media specialists, I determined that these groups also make up about the same proportion of organ donors and organ recipients. The piece was posted on LA Beez, an online collaboration of ethnic media outlets. It was a pleasure to work with editor Jerry Sullivan and website specialist Kevin Chan.</p>

<p>Dozens of organ and tissue donors will be honored on a float sponsored by Donate Life America in the 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade.</p>

<p>For many Mexican immigrants living in New York, working multiple jobs leaves little time for regular exercise. In addition, a heavy reliance on public transportation and a lack of rural areas means that physical activity is virtually nonexistent. Health experts cite this sedentary lifestyle as an emerging gateway to diabetes, especially among immigrants.</p>

<p>For many Mexican immigrants living in New York, working multiple jobs leaves little time for regular exercise. In addition, a heavy reliance on public transportation and a lack of rural areas means that physical activity is virtually nonexistent. Health experts cite this sedentary lifestyle as an emerging gateway to diabetes, especially among immigrants.</p><p>This story was <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/fellowships/projects/en-una-naci%C3%B3… published in Spanish</a>. Below is the English translation.</p>