New Funding Awards Engage and Empower Youth in Kenya

The Arnhold Institute for Global Health (AIGH), along with its partners at Moi University, Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH), and MTRH Rafiki Centre for Excellence in Adolescent Health announced 8 projects as part of a new pilot funding program to advance youth programs and collaborative, youth-focused, care, education, and research projects as part of the AMPATH Kenya partnership.

In this inaugural funding opportunity, AIGH released two funding opportunities. The first focused on building collaborative faculty-led care, education, or research projects and provides four awardees with US$20,000 awards.

The second opportunity focused on engaging Kenyan youth in a novel process to develop and implement small projects with big impact on youth health. These proposals are designed and led by Kenyan youth with support from faculty mentors. These Kenyan youth-led proposals will each receive US$5,000 awards.

Rachel Vreeman, MD, MS, who serves as the chair and professor of the Departments of Global Health and Health System Design and Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of the Arnhold Institute for Global Health is very excited about the new pilot funding program. “This is the first time we have created pilot projects with a youth-health focus. These projects will enable Kenyan youth to design and create proposals for topics that they are passionate about and are able to make an impact in their communities," Dr. Vreeman stated.

Brittany McCoy, MD, an instructor for the Departments of Global Health and Health System Design and Psychiatry, serves as the adolescent health team lead for the AMPATH Consortium and also expounded on how important it is to engage youth in AMPATH’s work. “For our research to have a meaningful impact, we have to engage youth in our work from the very beginning. Otherwise, we risk missing important information, and our findings could end up not being as relevant or impactful for youth as we assumed they would be. We have to incorporate their voices and perspectives," Dr. McCoy reiterated.

Adolescent Health Working Group

Hilda Cheserek, one of the youth award recipients is grateful for the opportunity to help lead a project. “What I hope to accomplish in this pilot project is incorporation of the mental health screening tool and ensuring that this is a part of the curriculum of peer training. This project will be very impactful because mental health issues really affect adolescents and young people living with HIV, and the project will provide a platform for peers to take initiative on matters concerning mental health,” asserted Cheserek.

The following projects have been selected for funding:

Faculty-Led Projects:

1. Adolescent Chamas+: Piloting a Transformative Health and Economic Strengthening Intervention for Pregnant and Parenting Adolescents. Principal Investigators: Drs. Wan-Ju Wu and Julia Songok

2. Building Capacity for Adolescent Mental Health through Empowering Community Health Volunteers (CHVS). Principal Investigators: Drs. Scholastic Adeli and Mathew Turissini

3. Expansion and Capacity Development of the Adolescent and Youth Advisory Board. Principal Investigators: Drs. Edith Apondi and Leslie Enane

4. Adaptation of the Pediatric Traumatic Stress Screening Tool and a Care Process Model for Pediatric Traumatic Stress for Primary Care Settings Serving Adolescents in Western Kenya. Principal Investigators: Drs. Brittany McCoy and Eunice Chepkoech Temet

Youth-Led Projects:

1. Expanding the Capacity of AMPATH Young Adult Peer Mentors: Training Peers to Identify Youth Mental Health Problems. Youth Applicant: Hilda Cheserek. Faculty Mentor: Brittany McCoy

2. Leveraging Social Media for Improved Sexual and Reproductive Health in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Youth Applicant: Catherine Wanjiku. Faculty Mentor: Wan-Ju Wu

3. Enhancing Peer Navigation and Mentorship Programs Through Capacity Building and Support Supervision Initiatives within USAID AMPATH Uzima Program. Youth Applicant: Victor Ngeno. Faculty Mentor: Douglas Kinuthia Gaitho

4. Rafiki’s Nurture and Engagement Talk for Sexual and Reproductive Health Among Young Mothers and Fathers “Rafiki’s NET kwa SRH ya Mama na Baba wadogo.” Youth Applicant: Susan Rono. Faculty Mentors: Dr. Edith Apondi and Ishmail Sillah