[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 29 (Wednesday, March 7, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E299]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     A TRIBUTE TO LYNDA DIANE MULL

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, March 7, 2001

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I wish to pay tribute to Lynda Diane Mull, a 
dedicated advocate for our nation's two million migrant and seasonal 
farmworkers. Diane has recently resigned her position with the 
Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) after 20 years of 
dedicated service.
  AFOP is a national federation of farmworker service, employment, and 
training providers who serve migrant and seasonal farmworkers in 49 
states and Puerto Rico. AFOP's members are funded by the Department of 
Labor to provide direct services--jobs, training, housing, English 
classes, emergency assistance, and other vital services--to farmworkers 
through a network of more than 300 field offices located throughout 
rural America. As AFOP's Executive Director Diane helped build the 
organization into one of the nation's leading farmworker advocacy 
groups, as well as a leader in the fight to end abusive child labor, 
particularly in rural areas, in this country and around the world.
  Mr. Speaker, I have worked closely with Diane for many years in our 
attempt to protect farmworker children who toil in our nation's 
agricultural fields. As you know, hundreds of thousands of children who 
harvest fruits and vegetables are exposed to working conditions that 
many adults cannot endure. Hundreds of thousands of young people's 
immune systems are being placed in great risk of harm from toxic 
fertilizers and pesticides.
  Diane's career began as an Information/Education Specialist for North 
Carolina's Department of Human Resources, Division of Mental Health, 
where she coordinated community mental health, drug, and alcohol 
education for mental health centers and hospitals. In 1978, Diane began 
her efforts with farmworker programs, taking a position as a Job 
Development Specialist for Telamon Corporation. Late in 1978, she 
became Program Coordinator for Telamon's Georgia farmworker program, 
supervising seven field offices, and in late 1980 she was selected as 
Telamon's State Director for the West Virginia program.
  Diane was appointed Executive Director of the Association of 
Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP) in 1981. At AFOP, she helped 
educate Members of Congress about the plight of the nation's 
farmworkers, as well as their employment and training needs. She worked 
tirelessly to improve resources to help the poorest of the poor.
  Seven years ago, Diane conceived and helped establish AFOP's 
AmeriCorps National Farmworker Environmental Education Program which 
has provided pesticide safety training to nearly 220,000 farmworkers in 
order to protect them from the dangers of toxic chemicals. The program 
has also enhanced the work skills and leadership abilities of more than 
450 AmeriCorps members--many of them young people from farmworker 
families who have received over $1 million in education awards.
  Diane Mull has been active on numerous boards, commissions, federal 
advisory committees, and panels dealing with farmworker issues, 
including the National Child Labor Coalition, the National Children's 
Center on Childhood Agricultural Injury Prevention, the U.S. Department 
of Labor's National Stakeholders Forum, and others. She has been named 
to four federal advisory committees: the U.S. Department of Labor's 
Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Employment and Training Federal 
Advisory Committee, the Environmental Protection Agency's Children's 
Health Protection Federal Advisory Committee, the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services' Regional Coordinating Council on Migrant 
Head Start, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Advisory 
Committee on International Child Labor Enforcement. Diane also founded 
and is the co-chair of the Children in the Fields Campaign, the 
domestic and international campaign to end the worst forms of child 
labor in agriculture.
  Over the years, Diane has worked tirelessly to publicize farmworker 
issues, even as she waged her own successful battle against cancer. She 
was instrumental in bringing about the Associated Press's five-part 
1997 series entitled, ``Children for Hire,'' which played a dramatic 
role in bringing our nation's child labor problem to the public's 
attention. She also worked closely with Dateline NBC's ``Children of 
the Harvest,'' which aired in 1998. Most recently, she assisted 
Seventeen Magazine with its article ``We Are Invisible,'' which 
included one of Diane's many photos depicting child labor in 
agriculture.
  Diane Mull has received numerous awards in recognition of her 
contributions. In 1991, she was awarded the first National Award for 
Professional Staff Development by the National Association of Workforce 
Development Professionals. In 1994, she participated at the Commission 
on Security and Cooperation in Europe's Human Dimension Seminar in 
Warsaw, Poland representing the interest of U.S. migrant workers and 
the non-governmental organizations that serve them. In 1996, Diane was 
inducted into the National Farmworker Advocates Hall of Fame, and in 
June 1998, she spoke at a briefing on child labor before the 
International Labor Organization (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
  In 1999, Diane founded the International Initiative to End Child 
Labor (IIECL), a non-profit organization whose sole mission is to end 
the most exploitative forms of child labor in the United States and 
around the world. In that same year, through Diane's voluntary efforts, 
IIECL received three grants working in partnership with AFL-CIO's 
American Center for International Labor Solidarity, the National 
Consumers League, and the International Labor Rights Fund.
  Throughout her career, Diane has testified on numerous occasions 
before both the House and Senate, and submitted hundreds of statements 
and testimony to the executive and legislative branches of the federal 
government on behalf of farmworkers and farmworker organizations. More 
recently, she addressed the First International Symposium on Micro-
Enterprise in Obregon, Mexico in 1999 addressing child labor and youth 
employment issues. She returned to Mexico in August 2000 to complete a 
country survey on child labor in agriculture for the International 
Labor Rights Fund.
  In November, Diane left AFOP to take a new position at Creative 
Associates working with the United States Agency for International 
Development. She will oversee the development of innovative basic 
education programs to prevent child labor around the world. 
Additionally, she will brief Congress and USAID on international child 
labor developments, as well as provide training and technical 
assistance about child labor to U.S. AID global, regional, and mission-
level staff in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in expressing our 
gratitude to Diane for her two decades of service on behalf of our 
nation's migrant and seasonal farmworkers. We wish her great success in 
her continuing work to prevent abusive child labor.

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