Maternal, Newborn, and Adolescent Health

Mycotoxins are a threat to agriculture and human health. The issue arises when toxin formation occurs during grain drying and storage, and there is a need for novel approaches. Current efforts have concentrated in tackling wastage of grain while stored. The innovators showed that the drying stage is the most critical control point in curtailing toxin production. However, the cost of the drier prototype is too high for adoption at subsistence farmer level.

Our innovation is the PICS bag, a triple layer plastic bag that serves as an hermetic way to store grains. Sealed PICS bag deprives insect of oxygen, action that kills insects and stops mold growth decreasing food losses and aflatoxin contamination.

This project will offer a low cost technique to the street food vendors and evaluate its effectiveness for promoting a safe street food business in the capital city of Dhaka.

Mothers working in Bangladesh garment factories will receive access to breast pumps and a low-cost way to extend the shelf life of expressed breast milk. The technique uses an alternative heating medium, minimizing the amount of water and energy normally needed for pasteurization but effectively killing bacteria and viruses while leaving nutrient content largely intact and extending shelf life.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, roughly 12 of every 100 children die before age five.  Exclusive breastfeeding for six months is an effective way to save many of those lives but only about one-third of babies in the region are exclusively breastfed and in Kenya's Kibera slums, where poverty forces mothers to resume work soon after delivery, the rate is 2%.  The Linda Kizazi project will foster a Baby-Friendly Community in Kibera, creating both a personal saving plan for mothers and links to breastfeeding-friendly ways to generate income in those crucial first six months of their baby's lif

This project aims to break the intergenerational cycle of health inequities in low- and middle-income countries by developing an affordable toolkit to tackle child labour and promote health equity (technological/business innovation) implemented through training primary care outreach workers in low-resource settings (social innovation).

Development of a Community-Embedded Family Therapy Intervention in Kenya: A faith- and village-based approach Family conflict can be the root cause of mental health symptoms. Currently, many families seek counseling from religious and village leaders, people without previous training. This project aims to offer these community leaders evidence-based technology tools to provide improved family therapy, thus providing family therapy for children who live in high-conflict families.

Globally, millions of children are physically punished every day, increasing their risk for lifelong mental and physical problems. Physical punishment fosters aggression, generates feelings of rejection, disrupts the brain's stress response mechanism and compromises the neural systems needed for self-regulation. Addressing this epidemic requires a paradigm shift in parental thinking.

In Tamil Nadu, India, nearly half of all children with disabilities lack basic education. This exclusion is even more profound in rural communities. This novel project will empower local rehabilitation workers to implement early intervention programs for children with developmental delays. Customized tablet applications are used to coordinate with specialists located remotely, to tailor individualized programs for identified children.

Preschool children of single mothers in urban slums are desperately vulnerable. With no formal daycares or even policy in Kenya, mothers have few options: leave their children with neighbours, with unregulated and often neglectful informal daycare providers, or lock them up alone at home. A network of safe slum daycares (Tiny Toto daycares) can help the most vulnerable and function as a conduit of health service delivery at scale. The goal is to improve the lives of preschool children living in Nairobi's slums while avoiding institutional dependency.