Toronto – September 16, 2014 – Jorge Cortazar Lopez is 33-years-old and has been coming to Canada from his native Mexico for the past two years under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program. He is a husband and the father of two daughters, and is happy to announce that his five-year-old daughter, Daila Cortazar Chiclin, is a recipient of one of the UFCW Canada Migrant Workers Scholarships.

In Canada, Jorge works at a farm in Virgil, Ontario. Often working between 65 and 70 hours per week, some of the challenges faced by Jorge and his co-workers include exposure to harmful pesticides and lack of access to basic health services. In working to overcome these difficulties, he thanks the staff at the AWA Virgil Support Centre – one of ten support centres operated across Canada by the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA). He also expresses his gratitude to UFCW Canada for making the scholarship available to his daughter. In a letter recently penned to UFCW Canada, Daila said she would like to become either a teacher or a stylist in her future.

Jorge’s goal is to eventually work as a consultant in the construction sector in Mexico. He has plenty of work experience learning from architects in the civil engineering sector. On a personal note, Jorge is currently working on building a house for his family in Mexico.

Since 2010, Canada’s union for agriculture workers has received over 15,000 applications for its Migrant Worker Scholarships program and has now awarded scholarships to 65 children to benefit their education pursuits in their home countries.

The deadline to apply for the 2014 round of Migrant Workers Scholarships is December 31, 2014. To find out more about the UFCW Canada Migrant Workers Scholarships program, and to download applications or apply online, visit ufcw.ca/migrantscholarship.