Inside SMART Africa

The 5th Annual Conference on Child Behavioral Health in Sub-Saharan Africa was held virtually on April 21-22, 2021. The packed two-day agenda featured keynote remarks by NIMH Director Joshua Gordon, Vikram Patel from Harvard Medical School, Cornelius Williams from UNICEF, and Florence Baingana and Chiara Servili from WHO. They all discussed behavioral health and global […]

Congratulations to Dr. Proscovia Nabunya, Christopher Damulira, William Byansi, Joelynn Muwanga, Dr. Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Flavia Namuwonge, Eloho Ighofose, Dr. Rachel Brathwaite, Wilberforce Tumwesige, and Dr. Fred Ssewamala on the acceptance of their paper “Prevalence and Correlates of Depressive Symptoms Among High School Adolescent Girls in Southern Uganda” for publication in BMC Public Health Journal. This […]

Applications for ICHAD’s training programs are now open. All applications are completed online and have a deadline of January 4, 2021. Please see the flyer and visit each program website for eligibility and application requirements. Links to each application site are below. If you have questions about the programs, please contact Laura Peer at Lpeer@wustl.edu. Please help us […]

This year’s Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Annual Program Meeting featured several ICHAD training program trainees, fellows, and alumni. Held on November 16-20, the theme was “Leading Critical Conversations: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” and featured three ICHAD fellows: Tyriesa Howell, PhD, was a LEAD trainee in the summer 2020 cohort. She participated in a panel discussion, […]

The SMART Africa studies examine the impact and implementation of an evidence-based Multiple Family Group (MFG) intervention for children experiencing behavioral problems and their families in Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana. In November, the Uganda team delivered the final Multiple Family Group (MFG) sessions, in the Amaka Amasanyufu intervention, culminating four years of hard work! The last three MFG sessions […]

Despite the ongoing pandemic and its various restrictions, the ICHAD U.S. Team continues to find ways to connect both virtually and in-person for various social activities. Most recently, the team gathered for a socially distanced luncheon at a local park and met with new student team members. The team also met for an impromptu surprise […]

Left: Congratulations to Joshua Kiyingi, SMART Africa and Kyaterekera Coordinator, and his new bride Irene Nakazibwe who were married on October 29! Right: ICHAD-Uganda’s Project Driver, Sam Ssekiranda was introduced by his fiancée Tattoo Nakandi to her parents on October 4. Congratulations, Sam and Tattu!

CHILD-GRF Fellow and SMART Africa-Uganda In-Country Principal Investigator Apollo Kivumbi, MBchB, MPH, was nominated to be an Early Career Researcher (ECR) with the Ethics for Mental Health Digital Innovation for Young People in Africa (EMDIYA) Network. The EMDIYA ECR is a formative grant in which Dr. Kivumbi and his colleagues are working towards a larger-scale project with […]

On October 15, 2020, ICHAD Founder and Director, Dr. Fred Ssewamala, ICHAD Affiliate Timothy Opobo, Executive Director of the AfriChild Center, and ICHAD Co-Director, Dr. Ozge Sensoy Bahar presented on “Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Child Savings Programs in Israel and Uganda” at a symposium hosted by McDonnell International Scholars Academy at Washington University in St. Louis. This […]

The SMART Africa studies examine the impact and implementation of an evidence-based Multiple Family Group (MFG) intervention for children experiencing behavioral problems and their families in Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana. During the month of October, the Uganda team continued supervising the delivery of MFG sessions 14, 15, and 16 in four schools. To protect against COVID-19, the […]

Congratulations to ICHAD and SMART Africa Center members Drs. Fred Ssewamala, Proscovia Nabunya, Ozge Sensoy Bahar, ICHAD Affiliate Dr. Patricia Cavazos, and PhD student William Byansi for the recent publication “The impact of discomfort with HIV status and hopelessness on depressive symptoms among adolescents living with HIV in Uganda” in AIDS Care. The publication examines the relationship among […]

Congratulations to Dr. Manasi Kumar, SMART Africa-Kenya Co-Investigator and Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Nairobi, whose impactful work was recently featured in the NIH’s Fogarty International Center’s monthly newsletter. Since the pandemic began, Dr. Kumar has shifted the focus of her research to examine how COVID-19 […]