Photo : 39-year-old Marchand Jenkins is holding her two-week-old daughter Nicolette Jenkins
By Jameca Patrick-Singleton
The Jenkins family is a loving family in Flint’s 1st ward. Marchand Jenkins is wife to 39-year-old Nicholas Jenkins and mother to 15-year-old Quinaries Holden, 11-year-old Nicholas Jenkins Jr. and 2-week-old Nicolette Jenkins.
Marchand Jenkins describes the water crisis as “frustrating and frightening”.
“I’m very frustrated,” she said.
When little Nick Jenkins (the nickname that the family calls Nicholas jr.) was around eight years old, he broke out uncontrollably.
“Nothing that we tried worked. It was horrible. The only explanation that anyone could give me, even the doctors, was that the water was breaking him out,” Marchand Jenkins said.
“So here I was, a mom who had inadvertently put my children in harms way. That’s a heavy burden for a mom to carry. I was sad. I was angry. I was in disbelief that this was actually happening. I still carry a lot of that anger.”
Recently Marchand Jenkins gave birth to two-week old Nicolette Jenkins. She stated that since the time of her daughter’s birth her family has tripled the amount of bottled water that they’ve had to purchase.
“People keep telling me that I can bathe my baby in tap water but I refuse. I’m literally paranoid to give my little baby a bath in that stuff. What if she breaks out the way that my son did. I refuse to take that kind of chance with my newborn.”
Marchand Jenkins reported that she absolutely does not trust the water. She stated that though her lead service lines have already been replaced, she doesn’t feel that enough has been done to address the water crisis.
“I have to do what’s in the best interest of my kids, I have to protect them and right now that means not bathing my daughter in the water and not allowing any of my kids to drink from it”.
