Filed under: News, The Economy
My mother gave birth to me when she was 17-years old. As a teen mother who didn’t have a lot of money, she didn’t know the first thing about raising a child, taking care of her health, or preparing for her economic future. Fortunately, there were adults in community-based programs who cared enough to teach her the things that she didn’t yet understand.
It is for that reason I support programs like The Health Babies Project in Washington, DC. There is no more important job than that of a mother, and The Healthy Babies Project understands that. The great challenge for the organization is that politicians seem to remember that babies don’t vote. So, when the funds are low, programs like this one are among the first to be killed.
Due to recent budget cuts, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty has allowed for the program’s budget to lose a whopping $500,000 per year, well over half of the funding that the program needs in order to operate. Dr. Pierre Vigilance, Director of the Department of Public Health, has played his role in the process by allowing funding to be cut that had been previously promised to the organization. What’s worse is that the program has been doing a better job than the Department of Health itself when it comes to reaching benchmarks on the elimination of infant mortality.
The unborn babies can’t quite speak for themselves, but their mothers aren’t taking this lying down. The organization is planning a rally Tuesday, October 6 in Freedom’s Plaza, located on Pennsylvania Avenue. The women being supported by the program are also working the phones to hold local officials accountable and are even pushing to get the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama.
Programs like The Healthy Babies Project are important, since infant mortality in the black community is 2.3 times greater than that for white Americans. Additionally, persistent problems in the DC area, such as HIV infection and malnutrition require continuous dedication from public officials. One can understand the idea of cutting a program that isn’t working. But if a program is doing well, and goals are being reached, why would this be the program that gets one of the most significant funding cuts in the city?
Perhaps we are getting a chance to see DC politics at its finest. Politicians are going to be political, but our children need our support.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a professor at Syracuse University and author of the forthcoming book, “Black American Money.” To have Dr Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
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