ish-speaking community , including as many as 1,000 undocumented Latinos living in the community .
Meanwhile Hannah-Attisha ’ s study of the relationship between the lead-laden water and recent stillbirths continues , a relationship that the Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ) confirms in its own reports . “ Lead can cross the placental barrier , which means pregnant women who are exposed to lead also expose their unborn child . Lead can damage a developing baby ’ s nervous system . Even low-level lead exposures in developing babies have been found to affect behavior and intelligence . Lead exposure can cause miscarriage , stillbirths , and infertility ( in both men and women ),” says the CDC .
Elder Jones of Vermont Christian Church has no question it was the water that caused his granddaughter ’ s stillbirth . “ I have never seen my son cry like that ,” he recalls , tears welling in his eyes . “ He just held that little baby in his arms ... I felt so helpless ... I wish I could have warned them somehow ... not to drink the water ...”
BLIGHT FLIGHT The water crisis in Flint is simply the latest in a series of blows to people in the community , compounding the economic devastation . Census data show that of the 80,000 General Motors jobs once located in Flint , about 8,000 remain . Unemployment is double the
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Summer2016 · JUST WOMEN national average and poverty hovers at forty percent of the population . Not surprisingly , those who can afford to are leaving town .
“ It ’ s a big migration ,” says Roseanne Jones , a charter school food services manager and member of Vermont Christian Church . She receives a list each week of children whose names are being deleted from the lunch list because their families are moving . In the
“ We were already handdelivering water to people in the neighborhood who have trouble getting out of their homes .”
last three months , about twenty-five children have left . “ And that ’ s just one school ,” she adds . “ People are moving out .”
“ I have this feeling that it ’ s going to end up in me having to leave Flint ,” says Alissa Knox , a 28-year-old employee who oversees daily operations at the E-Z Laundry , a few blocks from the church . “ It ’ s like a sinking ship , and you ’ re watching people jump off ,” she continued , adding , “ The problem is that so many people have no choice .”
It ’ s the people who have no choice that Vermont Christian Church now serves . As an official distribution center for water and food , church members handed out 31,000 bottles of water and food for 300 families – and that was just one day in early April . “ We were already hand-delivering water to people in the neighborhood who have trouble getting out of their homes ,” said Pastor Andre Powell . “ We didn ’ t know it , but one of those people happened to be the new mayor ’ s mother .”
A church blanketing its neighborhood with care , regardless of church affiliation , was the kind of generosity that the new mayor , Karen Weaver , was looking for to trust as distribution centers . Trust is harder to find in Flint than clean water .
DEADLY TAP WATER
Trust eroded when government officials repeatedly told citizens the water was safe — for everything from drinking to baptizing — even after an early October 2014 announcement by General Motors . The manufacturer , which paid about $ 400,000 each year for water , advised the city that the water was corroding engine parts . The