Educational Program

The project will identify, treat and reintegrate 4000 fistula clients, and equip and enhance them with skills and knowledge in theater productions, marketing and advocacy to become champion interveners. We seek to alter social norms away from fistula stigma and transform the conventional health system for improved livelihoods.

EXPanding care fOr periNATal women with dEpression (EXPONATE) is a program of research at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. It is designed to test the impact of an intervention package for perinatal depression, delivered by community midwives, on alleviating maternal depression and preventing its negative consequences for infant growth and development.

Reduction of child drowning in a Bangladesh community by introduction of low cost, effective, culturally sensitive, community selected interventions for children age 1-4 and 5-14 yrs old, then scale this up to a broader region of at-risk children.

Ti Kay allows patients to help themselves with technology within their reach when disruptions may otherwise interrupt treatment. Experienced patients support newer patients in taking their TB, HIV medications daily, through phone calls from patient lists generated by an easily accessible computer database. Follow Megan Coffee on Twitter @DokteCoffee"

Self-administered drug intake by TB patients, supervised by a trained family member and supported by medical counseling and reminders from the research team will improve treatment adherence and success rates, and stop TB and MDR-TB epidemics.

Tuberculosis (TB) is rampant inTanzania and the detection rate is low (50%). People who potentially have TB tend to go to pharmacies to purchase antibiotics before getting a proper diagnosis. A training and referral system from pharmacies to facility-based diagnostic/treatment centres will increase early detection rates and reduce transmission by shortening the diagnosis delay.

People living in rural areas are exposed to infectious mosquito bites at times when they are not using bed nets. We propose using sisal fibers treated with transfluthrin repellent to prevent mosquito bites hence confer protection indoors and outdoors.

KAPPA is a theory-driven model to reduce HIV transmission by combining biomedical and behavioural interventions and diffusing them via social/sexual networks of men who have sex with men (MSM). This study will explore the uptake potential of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as a prevention strategy among MSM and a medical practice among physicians.

Almost one in six people are HIV-positive in Njombe - a region with Tanzania's most uninformed population when it comes to the disease, according to surveys, and the country's highest rate of infection, now increasing among young adults. The area has no formal HIV education program and many children are orphans lacking parental guidance. This project will expand a pilot-tested, site-crafted, formally evaluated HIV/AIDS youth peer health educator program into primary schools in HIV-ravaged rural Tanzania, to empower youth in making healthy decisions.

A combination of poverty, malnutrition, illness and a lack of stimulation at home puts at risk the cognitive development of millions of children in the developing world. Operating in an urban slum of Bangladesh, women trained within this project will make 13 home visits in a child's first year of life to counsel parents on infant feeding and psychosocial stimulation - an integrated, sustainable, cost-effective approach potentially able to be implemented through the existing health system in Bangladesh.