Educational Program

Günther Fink of Harvard School of Public Health in the U.S. will help parents to assess their child's development, thereby making them more likely to seek necessary treatment. They will test two strategies in a randomized controlled trial involving 600 children from Eastern Zambia. For one group, they will install life-size growth chart posters in selected households along with instructions for use and where to seek help if the child's height is below a critical level. For the other, they will arrange regular community meetings to measure children's heights and offer further advice.

Ann Don Bosco of Good Business in the United Kingdom will run a prevention campaign to reduce the transmission of tuberculosis by making coughing without covering your mouth socially unacceptable. Tuberculosis is a major problem in developing countries, particularly in South Africa, and is primarily spread by coughing. Previous cough prevention campaigns have focused on changing the behavior of the infected person. However, healthy individuals should be more willing to promote preventative behavior in order to avoid becoming infected.

Anne de Groot of GAIA Vaccine Foundation in the U.S. will use printed West African Cloth to educate women on the benefits of screening and vaccinating against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common and lethal cancer affecting women in West Africa. This is thought to be partly due to a lack of knowledge about the causes of the disease. The patterns on clothing in West Africa often have symbolic meaning, but have not yet been exploited for health education.

Joseph Kagaayi of the Rakai Health Sciences Program in Uganda will test whether giving a personalized HIV risk index to Ugandan males will encourage them to undergo safe male circumcision to prevent HIV infection. The multi-item risk index for HIV was developed from the general population of Rakai in Uganda, and will be straightforward for HIV counselors and clinicians to use. He will incorporate the index into a randomized controlled trial involving men aged 15-49 years who are undergoing HIV testing, and evaluate its effect on circumcision rates after 6 months.

Christine Musyimi of Africa Mental Health Foundation in Kenya will engage Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) in rural Kenya to provide psycho-social interventions to mothers during the perinatal period and refer complicated cases of depression to health facilities. This approach aims to ensure accessible and acceptable basic mental health care in under-resourced areas while linking these mothers to primary health care to ensure safe deliveries and promote their mental well-being and that of the baby even after birth.

NextGenU.org Global Scaleup

Over 200 million children worldwide are at risk of losing their developmental potential, creating and sustaining intergenerational poverty. Data is scarce but a pilot found that more than half of children in Lima, Peru, have neurodevelopmental delay. Research shows that early stimulation and responsive parent-child interactions help to build young neuronal density and buffer the effects of poverty. However, distributing this knowledge to vulnerable families has been a challenge.

Chamas for Change: Building Adult Capabilities to Safeguard Children’s Developmental Potential through Mother-Child Clubs in Kenya

In Pakistan, as in most developing countries, early child development is a neglected area of public health. Malnutrition and a mother’s incapability to supply effective care can contribute significantly to development delays in children. The innovators at the Association for Social Development are creating an intervention that aims to engage private clinics to promote optimal early development of young children in poor urban environments, through an integrated package of mother and child care.