Latest news with #RxKids
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Pediatrician who helped expose Flint's water crisis now fighting poverty
Flint, Michigan — At a parade last year in Flint, Michigan, every family and their babies celebrated a gift from the same woman — pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna. "How can you say no to these babies? Like how can you say no?" Hanna told CBS News. Rx kids, a program she created to give cash to pregnant moms, is an American first. "I wanted something that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty," Hanna said. "I wanted something that I could pull out of my doctor's bag, pull out of my white coat that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty. Poverty makes kids sick. So I wanted to prevent it." She's raised more than $100 million, 80% of which is from private donors. Now, every expectant mother in Flint, regardless of income, can get $1,500 during her pregnancy. Once the baby is born, it's $500 a month for up to a year — no strings attached. "So what we are hearing from our families is that this amount of money is a lifesaver, a game changer for our families," Hanna said. "They can afford to pay their rent. They can buy diapers for their baby. They can buy formula. They don't have to choose between being homeless or having a roof over their heads." When asked how to know if the money is being spent on the right things, Hanna said, "This is based on global evidence. Our multiple surveys, we know that they're spending this money No. 1 on baby supplies, and then on food, rent utilities, transportation, childcare." "We are telling families, 'We see you, we hear you, and we trust you,'" she added. Hanna knows child poverty runs in Flint's bloodstream. In 2015, she brought national attention to the city's corroding water pipes and linked them to children with lead poisoning. Now she's tackling poverty. In four areas of Michigan, any expectant mother can apply. But in Flint, the program reports 60% of enrolled families have an annual household income of less than $10,000. When Angela Sintery was pregnant with her daughter Jolena, she remembers filling out a five-minute questionnaire. "Two weeks later, I had money in my bank account," Sintery said, adding that the money allowed her not to stress out and focus on her baby instead. Michigan State Sen. John Damoose is a conservative Republican from a red district. He's no fan of handouts, but pushed hard to get Rx Kids in his district. "It's extremely efficient. There's no government bureaucracy whatsoever. This is actually a great program that meets people right where they need it," Damoose said. Since early last year, Rx Kids has spread roughly $10 million to more than 2,200 families. "This is a plug-and-play program. It is already built with dollars at the table. We are ready to go live in communities across the nation," Hanna said. SpaceX loses contact with its Starship, spins out of control These 3 record breakers have one thing in common Reporter's Notebook: John Dickerson reflects on his spelling woes
CBS News
5 days ago
- Business
- CBS News
A pediatrician helped expose Flint's water crisis. Now she's fighting poverty one baby at a time.
Flint, Michigan — At a parade last year in Flint, Michigan, every family and their babies celebrated a gift from the same woman — pediatrician Dr. Mona Hanna. "How can you say no to these babies? Like how can you say no?" Hanna told CBS News. Rx kids, a program she created to give cash to pregnant moms, is an American first. "I wanted something that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty," Hanna said. "I wanted something that I could pull out of my doctor's bag, pull out of my white coat that literally would be able to prescribe away the pathogen of poverty. Poverty makes kids sick. So I wanted to prevent it." She's raised more than $100 million, 80% of which is from private donors. Now, every expectant mother in Flint, regardless of income, can get $1,500 during her pregnancy. Once the baby is born, it's $500 a month for up to a year — no strings attached. "So what we are hearing from our families is that this amount of money is a lifesaver, a game changer for our families," Hanna said. "They can afford to pay their rent. They can buy diapers for their baby. They can buy formula. They don't have to choose between being homeless or having a roof over their heads." When asked how to know if the money is being spent on the right things, Hanna said, "This is based on global evidence. Our multiple surveys, we know that they're spending this money No. 1 on baby supplies, and then on food, rent utilities, transportation, childcare." "We are telling families, 'We see you, we hear you, and we trust you,'" she added. Hanna knows child poverty runs in Flint's bloodstream. In 2015, she brought national attention to the city's corroding water pipes and linked them to children with lead poisoning. Now she's tackling poverty. In four areas of Michigan, any expectant mother can apply. But in Flint, the program reports 60% of enrolled families have an annual household income of less than $10,000. When Angela Sintery was pregnant with her daughter Jolena, she remembers filling out a five-minute questionnaire. "Two weeks later, I had money in my bank account," Sintery said, adding that the money allowed her not to stress out and focus on her baby instead. Michigan State Sen. John Damoose is a conservative Republican from a red district. He's no fan of handouts, but pushed hard to get Rx Kids in his district. "It's extremely efficient. There's no government bureaucracy whatsoever. This is actually a great program that meets people right where they need it," Damoose said. Since early last year, Rx Kids has spread roughly $10 million to more than 2,200 families. "This is a plug-and-play program. It is already built with dollars at the table. We are ready to go live in communities across the nation," Hanna said.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Michigan House hears testimony on baby cash payment program amid Trump ‘baby bonuses' proposal
Rx Kids Director Dr. Mona Hanna testifies before the Michigan state House Families and Veterans Committee on May 20, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols When moms get cash payments to help navigate pregnancy and in the first months after giving birth, they consistently use the funds to attend more medical appointments with their child and make choices that lead to better outcomes for them and their baby, Rx Kids Director Dr. Mona Hanna told Michigan lawmakers Tuesday. Hanna told the Michigan state House Families and Veterans Committee that has been the result for moms who've accessed cash payments through Rx Kids, which began as a program to address infant poverty in Flint, but has expanded to Kalamazoo and the Upper Peninsula, with other locations in Michigan to be served soon. Hanna, a Flint-area physician who sounded alarm bells about the long-term health impacts of the Flint Water Crisis in 2014, said the number one thing moms buy with the $500 monthly cash payments the program gives moms after they give birth is diapers. And in Flint, Hanna said the program has distributed $10 million to more than 2,000 families and has seen reductions in smoking in mothers, increased birth weights and less reports of abuse or neglect. The program is funded with money from the state government as well as local governments and private groups and also affords participants a one-time $1,500 cash payment during pregnancy. 'When we think about child welfare, it is one of the biggest cost items in our state budget and in our federal budget,' Hanna said. 'The peak age of child welfare involvement is zero to one, that first year of life, more than double any other age of life and that's largely because of poverty.' And as Michigan officials on the local and statewide level seek solutions to grow the state's population as it's predicted to decline over the next few years, the Trump administration is looking to address declining birth rates. A recent proposal by the Trump administration of a $5,000 'baby bonus' for moms after they give birth has made headlines around the country and is being matched by public discourse surrounding the high costs associated with pregnancy, giving birth and parenthood. A group of Michigan Senate Democrats stood alongside Hanna at the state Capitol in march as they unveiled their plan to decrease the costs of parenthood in Michigan, which included interest in making Rx Kids a statewide program. When asked if the Republican-led House would consider supporting Senate Democrats plan or propose their own population growth plan during an April 24 news conference, Michigan Speaker of the House Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) didn't respond directly to questioning about the potential of 'baby bonuses' from the Michigan Advance, but said the chamber is reviewing its options and is working on policies to make life more affordable for Michiganders across the board. Discussions about the state budget are being had right now, but chair of the House Families and Veterans Committee, Kathy Schmaltz (R-Jackson), didn't confirm with the Advance after the Tuesday committee meeting if a statewide expansion of baby cash payments is on the table. 'I think it's important that we bring in organizations that are here to help families. It's not that we agree with everything that goes on. It's just that we need to hear from different agencies who are out there and what they're doing for families and babies and what's available,' Schmaltz said. 'We will take all the information and we'll sift through it and find out what works, what doesn't work and what should be funded and what shouldn't be funded.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Time Magazine
20-05-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
Nick Allardice
GiveDirectly was already one of the world's largest providers of unconditional cash transfers to people living in extreme poverty when Nick Allardice, former head of the grassroots organizing platform came on as president and CEO last year. Now, under Allardice's leadership, the nonprofit is undertaking its most ambitious projects yet—despite a $20 million hit to funding because of USAID cuts. 'We're leaning more into humanitarian work now because cash can be uniquely powerful when all the other supply chains are super disrupted,' Allardice says. In the U.S., GiveDirectly's Rx Kids initiative is expanding to more than a dozen communities, after an initial program in Flint, Mich. showed promising improvements to participants' health and financial security. The program provides poor expectant mothers with $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 a month for up to a year after the child's birth. Other new initiatives include a pilot program in Nigeria testing anticipatory aid, sending money to people before a flood hits; another uses phone location data in the Democratic Republic of Congo to spot and send cash payments to people fleeing violence—cutting a typical 130-day wait for relief to five days. Allardice's biggest bet: a program in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, to test 'whether it's possible to catalyze an entire country out of poverty simultaneously.' To find out, GiveDirectly will send 200,000 adults in one region $550 each over the next 18 months in its largest-ever cash program. 'The world needs more moonshots,' Allardice says.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nick Allardice
Credit - Courtesy Allardice GiveDirectly was already one of the world's largest providers of unconditional cash transfers to people living in extreme poverty when Nick Allardice, former head of the grassroots organizing platform came on as president and CEO last year. Now, under Allardice's leadership, the nonprofit is undertaking its most ambitious projects yet—despite a $20 million hit to funding because of USAID cuts. 'We're leaning more into humanitarian work now because cash can be uniquely powerful when all the other supply chains are super disrupted,' Allardice says. In the U.S., GiveDirectly's Rx Kids initiative is expanding to more than a dozen communities, after an initial program in Flint, Mich. showed promising improvements to participants' health and financial security. The program provides poor expectant mothers with $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 a month for up to a year after the child's birth. Other new initiatives include a pilot program in Nigeria testing anticipatory aid, sending money to people before a flood hits; another uses phone location data in the Democratic Republic of Congo to spot and send cash payments to people fleeing violence—cutting a typical 130-day wait for relief to five days. Allardice's biggest bet: a program in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries, to test 'whether it's possible to catalyze an entire country out of poverty simultaneously.' To find out, GiveDirectly will send 200,000 adults in one region $550 each over the next 18 months in its largest-ever cash program. 'The world needs more moonshots,' Allardice says. Write to Kerri Anne Renzulli at
