"Colonia" is a spanish term for "neighborhood" or "community." In Texas, "colonia" refers to an unincorporated settlement that often lacks basic water and sewer systems, paved roads, and safe and sanitary housing. Colonias' can be found along the US-Mexico border in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Texas has the largest number of colonias (1,400 Texas colonias live primarily along the state, about 1, 248 miles from the border of Mexico) and the greatest colonia population. The colonia population in Texas is predominately Hispanic; 64.4 percent of all colonia residents under 18 years of ages were born in the United States. The plight of these colonia families has largely gone undocumented and unnoticed by policy makers as the social problems within these communities continue. These problems include a lack of educational, health care, and public resources.

Assuring quality education for children living in the colonias is a major challenge because of the high rate of student dropouts, irregular student attendance, and health problems. According to the Texas Education Agency, Region I, school attendance is affected by inadequate clothing, language barriers, peer pressure, and the financial need of secondary school students to hold jobs. The longitudinal dropout rate for secondary colonia students averaged 17.3 percent compared to an estimated state average of 14.4 percent.

Furthermore, health problems of children and adults residing in colonias are widespread. The University of Texas Systems Texas-New-Mexico Border Health Office reported the following rates of selected viral diseases in colonia residents per 100,000 population:

Hepatitis A: 43.9%

Salmonellosis: 21.3%

Shigellosis: 18.0%

Tuberculosis: 28.1%

In the county of Hidalgo, there are currently 129,880 people living in 868 colonias. Their lack of basic health and human services, environmental services, and capital improvements creates a third world environment is the U.S.- Mexico Border that has a significant impact on the quality of life of children and families. The needs of these forgotten people must be documented and presented to policy makers to highlight the deplorable living conditions and the adverse effects that these conditions have on the families in the colonias.

One viable solution is to develop a film documentary on colonia children that will use the media to present and illustrate to policy makers specific case studies of the depreciating conditions in which children live in the colonias. Our story will go to the colonias and investigate how the current living conditions impact families as they cope with very low incomes and high unemployment. We will also document how public resources are used to improve conditions and how the different sectors (i.e., public, private and non-profit) collaborate to assist the families residing in the colonias. This film will create a public awareness that will educate and inform communities and public policy-makers about the living conditions of children and families residing in colonias. We will interview state and federal policy makers and community leaders to identify legislation or other initiatives that are being undertaken to address the needs of the children and families in colonias. The documentary will be presented and disseminated throughout the nation, including communities in the U. S.- Mexico Border.

Dr. Jamie Chahin, project director, at the Department of Social Work and Walter Richter Institute of Social Work Research at Southwest Texas State University and Hector Galan of Galan Productions Inc. Television Films will collaborate in the development of the film documentary. Dr. Chahin has over twenty years experience in working with special populations ,and Mr. Galan has over ten years experience in producing film documentaries. In addition, the project will include an advisory committee of scholars, including Dr. Ricardo Romo, Dr. Blandina Cardenas, and Dr. Arturo Madrid who will review and evaluate the quality of the subject matter and authenticity of the film.