Social Determinants of Health and the Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

A recent study “Is multidimensional poverty associated to dementia risk? The case of older adults in Pakistan,” published in the journal Innovation in Aging by Jean-François Trani, PhD, Yiqi Zhu, PhD, Soobin Park, MSW, and Ganesh M. Babulal, PhD, OTD. The study found an increasing risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia due to poor social […]

Food Insecurity and Women’s Role in Afghanistan

A recent study done by GRID Labs Faculty members (Drs Yiqi Zhu, Lora Iannotti, Ganesh Babulal) and led by Dr. Jean Francois Trani in collaboration with Drs Rahim Azami, Monib Fazal and Dauod Khuram investigated the association between women’s education, employment, and household food security in Afghanistan. Food insecurity is a persistent issue in Afghanistan, affecting 24 million […]

Student engagement and attendance are central mechanisms interacting with inclusive and equitable quality education: Evidence from Afghanistan and Pakistan

In this paper, Dr Robbie Hart and Dr Jean-Francois Trani take an inclusive and equitable quality education approach defined by universal access whatever the abilities and characteristics of the child and above all their participation in the learning process. This study investigates how participatory methods allow to shift away from a right to education towards a right […]

Stigma and People with Severe Mental Illness

Dr. Trani led a new study on the impact of stigma on people with severe mental illness in Urban India. Trani, J. F., Yen, B. J., Duncan, A., Bakshi, P., Palmo, T., Jadhav, S., Deshpande. (2023). “People with mental illness stigmatize mental illness less: A comparison study between a hospital-based sample of people with mental […]

Teacher Accountability in Afghanistan and Pakistan

We are happy to announce that our recent article on teacher accountability has been published! This article is dedicated to the memory of our dear colleague and co-author Munib Sohail. Trani, J.F., Yin, S., Rfat, M., McKown, M., Cartmill, M. K., Kaplan, L., Zhu, Y., Sohail. M., Bakhshi, P. (2023).“Teachers’ Perspective on Accountability: A Case Study in […]

Resilience Stories from the Field: Vol. 2

There was a heavy flood in the area surrounding Hakima Sanayee primary school. The flood damaged many agricultural lands and diminished this past year’s harvest. The school does not have classrooms; instead, students sit under the damaged tents. As we started to conduct the psychosocial activities, heavy rain started to pour. We had to shift the […]

Asking Older Adults How to Improve Their Quality of Life

In 2022, the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee designed and implemented a study with the support of Washington University in St. Louis on older adults’ well-being. The study was conducted in 21 schools in Badakhshan province and the Jaighori district of Ghazni province. Currently, in Afghanistan, there are very few services for older adults who experience mental disorders or […]