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By Steve Taylor, Reporter
MISSION, Texas – Rashmi Chandran, CEO of AltaCair Foundation, recently won the RGV Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Community & Social Leadership Award.
The Rio Grande Guardian sat down for an interview with Chandran to learn about her group’s current projects and plans for 2026.
Chandran said AltaCair was proud to have opened a Community Care Closet in Edinburg and thanked Hidalgo County Commissioner Ellie Torres for her help in making the project happen.
AltaCair is becoming known for its emphasis on helping Valley colonias. The first colonia the group focused on was in Lasara, Willacy County. In the interview, Chandran explained which colonias they are working in and the three initiatives have had success with.
“So, we had started with Lasara in Willacy County. Now we’re very strongly in San Carlos, Hidalgo County. We’re starting our work in Santa Rosa, in Cameron County and even exploring Cameron Park as well. And in Starr County, we’re looking into La Grulla. So, we are trying to touch at least one colonia per county,” Chandran said.
“This will be our second year in Lasara, and if the goals we aimed for are met, then we’ll probably leave Lasara and look for another colonia in Willacy, or maybe add one more in Starr County.”
Chandran then ran through the initiatives AltaCair had success with in Lasara.
“We worked on emergency preparedness, 911, access in collaboration with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council,” Chandran said.
“When we started, the data showed that only 33% of the population were able to successfully reach 911, when they needed help. Now 100% of the population responded that they can reach 911, no problem.
“And this happened because we did the Know Your Address campaign a couple of times with the LRGVDC 911 department, and they were able to put these residents on their portal.
“And so now 911 is able to spot them where they are without any difficulty. So that is one metric that we’re extremely proud of.”
Chandran also said AltaCair also had success in reducing the presence of diabetes in LaSara.
“The other one is, we were able to get a 7% decrease in the A1C level in the population. Seven percent of the population had a decrease in A1C, so that is going from being diabetic to not being diabetic. That also required a lot of education, and more than education actually showing the lab work. So we provided free laboratory services every six months.
“So, I think knowing your levels, knowing where you stand, that really helped the population, along with some diet changes and exercise education.”
“The third metrics that we worked on was digital literacy. To some extent, most of the residents in Lasara have internet, but they were used to only using it for streaming and other purposes. So ,there was a lot of education provided on how to use it for telemedicine, online education. So we did move the curve on that one as well. We increased that from 33% to about 70%.”
In the interview, Chandran also spoke about her work with the Prosperity Task Force.
One of the AltaCair’s upcoming events is a community health fair taking place in the San Carlos colonia on March 10. Chandran discussed this and also looked ahead to the group’s top fundraising event of the eyar. Havana Nights – Bet on AltaCair takes place in Mission on April 24.
Editor’s Note: Here is a video recording of the interview:
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