Knowledge is power. Through an in-home teaching program, low-income residents along our Texas-Mexico border are learning environmental lessons that will change their lives and the lives of their children.

  Healthy Home Environments for the Paso del Norte (HHE) has made life a little safer for thousands of low-income people who live in unincorporated subdivisions with little or no infrastructure—called colonias—in El Paso, Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Healthy Home reaches families through home visits with information and tools to create healthier environments. HHE field workers teach families who don’t have potable water and sewage services how to disinfect water, make use of waterless toilets, appropriately dispose of solid waste, and how to use less-toxic alternatives for household cleaning and insect control. Through a network of seven community-based organizations, field workers have trained 3,700 families and have distributed more than 25,000 educational materials. Aiming to reach as many as possible, Healthy Home also conducts training-the-trainer workshops for other community health promoters to educate even more residents.

  In addition, the project benefits the environment by decreasing surface and groundwater pollution. Recently, 200 residents and community volunteers removed more than 30 tons of trash in cleanup events. Participants in the project gain an increased awareness of the relationship between people and the environment, the importance of ecological sustainability, and land protection.

  The Center for Environmental Resource Management at the University of Texas at El Paso, the Paso del Norte Health Foundation, and Johnson & Johnson fund the project. Through the financial contributions of its sponsors and the care and dedication of its staff and partners, Healthy Home Environments is helping to improve the environment and the quality of life in these border communities.