Mental Health

Combining enhanced caregiver-child interactions, improvements in nutrition, and creating community gardens, this project reshapes the care context for poor families. Nurses in Peru are the frontline health workers, yet their studies do not cover the psychosocial or nutritional needs of the developing brain. We will add modules to the nursing curriculum and a guided practicum to working with poor families.

The ABAaNA Early Intervention study will investigate whether a community-based training programme for carers of young children affected by newborn brain injury can improve the early brain development and quality of life of Ugandan children, and their families. Each year, around the world, millions of infants are at risk of delays in their developmental progress or disability as a result of newborn conditions like prematurity and lack of oxygen at birth. These newborn conditions are common in developing countries, but care for affected children is often not available.

iMerciv caters to the orientation and mobility needs of blind, deaf-blind or partially sighted communities around the world. We strive to empower those living with vision loss through innovative assistive technologies. The company is now set to launch its first product, The BuzzClip; a small and discreet wearable for children and adults that are living with vision loss.

BRAC Institute of Educational Development (BIED) will improve the self-regulation and executive functioning skills of children ages 2 to 3 from low income households in rural areas of Bangladesh by educating mothers through group sessions on playful engagement with their children. By studying the effectiveness of early stimulation, through a randomized controlled trial, the results will provide significant insight into and shape future interventions in the field of early childhood development.

We will provide psychosocial support (PSS) and skills training to marginalized married girls, adolescent mothers and pregnant girls in Malawi to improve their own wellbeing and their babies’ health. PSS will assist adolescents to develop resilience and manage stress caused by poverty, forced marriage, gender based violence, unwanted pregnancies and social stigma. We will empower them with parenting skills, nutritional care, child care and stimulation so that they can develop strong bonds with their infants and improve early brain development within the first 1000 days of the baby’s life.

Au Sénégal, seulement 14, 7 % des jeunes enfants de 0 à 6 ans ont accès à une éducation préscolaire et moins d'1 % des enfants de 0 à 3 ans [1]. Ces jeunes enfants souffrent alors d’un manque de stimulation cognitive. La totalité des crèches étant gérées par des établissements privés, les mères défavorisées n’ont pas les moyens d’y inscrire leurs enfants. Sukabé est une entreprise sociale dont la mission est de rendre plus accessible la pré-scolarisation des enfants de 0 à 3 ans issus des quartiers défavorisés de la banlieue de Dakar, en créant des centres de jeux et activités ludiques.

In Pakistan, about one third of young children are estimated to suffer from development delays. The public facilities remain an accessible source of health care for rural and poor communities. Delivering integrated ECD care, of "0 - 24" month old, at public health facilities is a program priority (8). A package for integrated ECD care of "0 - 12" month old is available (10) and currently being implemented; but ECD care of "13 - 24" month old is yet to be developed. The "Project" will address the need for a contextualized ECD care of "13 - 24" month old.

Aleksandra Perczynska from People in Need in Nepal will develop two approaches, namely mobile phone voice messaging (mobile health [mHealth]) and workshops, to improve the mental health of young mothers in Nepal. In 2016, over 15% of Nepali girls aged 15-19 years had children. These adolescents are particularly vulnerable to mental health disorders such as depression, and often have limited support from the community and their new in-laws. They will recruit young mothers and mental health workers to help design the two approaches.