About This Project
Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
To analyze psychosocial characteristics of cohorts with the primary exposure of years in an orphan/vulnerable children empowerment program and covariates of monthly income, financial stability over previous year, jobs-related area of training, gender, and nutritional intake.
To analyze prevalence of diarrheal illness within families with primary exposure of years in program and covariates of monthly income, financial stability over previous year, training area, gender of household head, water purification practices and nutritional intake and literacy of household head
To analyze sexual risk factors of household heads with primary exposure of years in program and covariates of monthly income, financial stability over previous year, training area, gender of household head, nutritional intake and literacy of household head.
To determine whether self-efficacy is a cofactor for increased literacy rates among cohorts.
To assess possible differences in food quality and quantity as a function of years in program and covariates of monthly income, financial stability over previous year, training area, gender of household head and literacy of household head.
What is the significance of this project?
There are over 43 million orphan youth in Africa, nearly 19 million of whom have lost a parent to AIDS. There are many known risks for these youth, who are often siblings. These risks include decreased psychosocial health, nutritional intake, increased poverty and reduced educational outcomes. Diarrheal illnesses are also elevated in this population, exacerbating the effect of the second leading cause of childhood mortality.
Only within the past decade or so have major donors begun asking how to respond, including the US-led President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) that has spent over a billion US dollars responding to the orphan crisis since 2006. Although it is seen as a major loss of human capital as well as significant present suffering, little is recorded in peer-reviewed literature related to best practices for caring for orphans and other vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa.
This gap is related to at least two major factors. On one hand and previously noted, the major international and national donors who traditionally require robust research have only recently begun systematic efforts to respond to the crisis. On the other hand, local responses, often in the form of community- and faith-based organizations, rarely have sufficient technical expertise or funds to divert away from essential programs. This means that those most innovative, indigenous and effective responses are often not translated into research to inform major donors and scientific literature. Continue reading...
What are the goals of the project?
Funds will allow the principal investigator to travel to the location in Kenya, fund the field research team to interview 700+ OVC household heads, and data entry personnel.
Budget
The main expenses of the study are International travel costs, survey translation and validation, field team expenses (supervisor, data collectors, data entry personnel) and printing costs.
Meet the Team
Affiliates
Houston Global Health Collaborative
Team Bio
Interested in human responses to adversity, I worked with inner-city youth, resettling refugees, and families in the West Bank through college. Particularly keen on responses from the faith community to issues of suffering, I completed the Master's of Divinity at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and was ordained as a Christian minister. After my wife and I volunteered at a pediatric HIV clinic in Malawi (southeast Africa) in 2009, I realized I needed further training to be of most use to those coping with major health and development challenges - pediatric AIDS, orphanhood, lack of clean water/food, etc. I completed the Master's in Public Health degree at the University of Texas, School of Public Health upon returning and am currently a candidate for the doctoral degree in Public Health. My interests are in evaluating programmatic responses to community-wide issues, such as the transmission of HIV from mother to child and the over 42 million orphan youth in sub-Saharan Africa. From the faith- and community-based sectors there are a lot of innovative responses to major global challenges, but these are not often evaluated, preventing needed contributions to peer-reviewed scientific literature seeking to establish best-practices. I have conducted five research projects in Kenya, working with orphans and vulnerable children, street children, and community beliefs related to voluntary counseling and testing for HIV, family planning and immunization. I helped establish scholarship programs for poor but deserving students in Malawi and Nicaragua, and established free clinics for underserved populations along the Texas-Mexico border and in Peru. My life's work is to help reduce the gap between global health practice and literature, and to help build requisite infrastructure to promote community-wide health where it is most threatened.Michael Goodman
Interested in human responses to adversity, I worked with inner-city youth, resettling refugees, and families in the West Bank through college. Particularly keen on responses from the faith community to issues of suffering, I completed the Master's of Divinity at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and was ordained as a Christian minister. After my wife and I volunteered at a pediatric HIV clinic in Malawi (southeast Africa) in 2009, I realized I needed further training to be of most use to those coping with major health and development challenges - pediatric AIDS, orphanhood, lack of clean water/food, etc. I completed the Master's in Public Health degree at the University of Texas, School of Public Health upon returning and am currently a candidate for the doctoral degree in Public Health. My interests are in evaluating programmatic responses to community-wide issues, such as the transmission of HIV from mother to child and the over 42 million orphan youth in sub-Saharan Africa. From the faith- and community-based sectors there are a lot of innovative responses to major global challenges, but these are not often evaluated, preventing needed contributions to peer-reviewed scientific literature seeking to establish best-practices. I have conducted five research projects in Kenya, working with orphans and vulnerable children, street children, and community beliefs related to voluntary counseling and testing for HIV, family planning and immunization. I helped establish scholarship programs for poor but deserving students in Malawi and Nicaragua, and established free clinics for underserved populations along the Texas-Mexico border and in Peru. My life's work is to help reduce the gap between global health practice and literature, and to help build requisite infrastructure to promote community-wide health where it is most threatened.
Additional Information
References, should you be interested:Adato, M. & Bassett, L. (2008). What is the potential of cash transfers to strengthen families affected by HIV and AIDS? A review of the evidence on impacts and key policy debates. JLICA. Retrieved from: http://programs.ifpri.org/renewal/pdf/JLICACashTransfers.pdf.
Ainsworth, M., Beegle, K., & Koda, G. (2005). The impact of adult mortality and parental deaths on primary schooling in north-western Tanzania. Journal of Development Studies, 41, 412-439. doi: 10.1080/0022038042000313318.
Akintola, O. (2006). Gendered Home-based Care: More Trouble for the Troubled. African Journal of AIDS Research, 5, 237–47. doi: 10.2989/16085900609490385.
Read More...Project Backers
- 4Backers
- 30%Funded
- $2,050Total Donations
- $512.50Average Donation