Discovering and demanding a remedy for the contamination of Flint’s water supply was only the beginning for AWTT portrait subject Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. Soon after releasing her shocking report in 2015, she launched the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative. Through this project, she has fought for the city’s most impoverished families – to bring them not only adequate health care but cause for hope in their lives. And now, the Initiative will be launching a program to address maternal and infant poverty systematically and citywide.
The good news was reported last week by MSU Today:
“Thanks to an intended $15 million ‘challenge’ grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Flint moms and babies could soon benefit from an innovative program that boldly tackles a root cause of health disparities — poverty. Rx Kids will be the first citywide program in the United States to address maternal and infant poverty with the novel approach of unconditional cash allowances to all pregnant moms and babies in the city of Flint.
“Led by Mona Hanna-Attisha, pediatrician and director of the Michigan State University-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, Rx Kids is a transformational effort that will help Flint children thrive at a critical time in their development.
“’We are over-the-moon grateful to the Mott Foundation for this significant investment,’ said Hanna-Attisha. ‘This opportunity helps fulfill a promise to Flint families that we can and will do better. A promise that we believe in them and a recognition that together we can build a better tomorrow for our kids.'”