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…it even more complex—who, how and where we as Indigenous people are identified shifts and changes depending on context but has important personal, cultural, and legal implications for us all.  People and organizations crave clear distinctions and clear lines of identity, but human history is more prone to messy and uncomfortable understandings of identity. That discomfort is good, it means to us that we are undertaking the hard work of reconciliation and eschew simplistic and…peoples as: … a collective name for the original peoples of North America and their descendants. Often, ‘Aboriginal peoples' is also used. The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Aboriginal peoples: Indians (more commonly referred to as First Nations), Inuit and Métis. These are three distinct peoples with unique histories, languages, cultural practices and spiritual…

…century.  In 2015, displacement reached its highest level ever, with over 59.5 million people forced from their homes.  It was also the hottest year on record, contributing to food shortages and extreme weather events, and one of the most dangerous years to be a child or an aid worker. Humanitarian needs are expected to increase in 2016, with the UN estimating that 125.3 million people will require humanitarian assistance across 37 countries before the year is out.  Overshadowed by the urgent calls for food, water, medicine and shelter, the mental health needs of people living in humanitarian settings are often forgotten or ignored. Building on Canada’s commitment to provide humanitarian…of acute crisis, limiting the ability of individuals to recover, adapt and move on with their lives, and impacting the next generation. Children and adolescents who grow up in the midst of armed conflict or chronic adversity experience long-term repercussions to their physical and mental health, putting them at risk of further exploitation and impeding…Ebola survivors. [caption id="attachment_22192" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Youth helped by the Youth Readiness Initiative with the Minister of Youth Affairs after presenting to the government Youth Employment Scheme design team.[/caption] To help bridge the gap between evidence and practice in the delivery of mental health care in humanitarian settings, Grand Challenges Canada has also supported the…

…the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. March 24th is World Tuberculosis (TB) Day, and a good time to take stock of global TB control. Sadly, despite the progress made, an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB in 2012, and 1.3 million died because of the disease. India alone accounted for 25% of this global TB burden. The WHO Global TB Report 2013 emphasized two major challenges for controlling the TB epidemic. First, of the estimated 8.6 million…Studies suggest that TB patients often begin seeking care in the informal private sector (pharmacists and unqualified practitioners), then seek care from qualified practitioners, and eventually end up in the RNTCP for free treatment. TB is diagnosed in India after a delay of about 2 months, and three providers are seen before patients are finally…and conducted in partnership with the Institute for Social and Economic Research on Development and Democracy (ISERDD). Successfully implemented, the use of standardized patients could lead to significant improvements in quality of care in a country where nearly 1,000 people die of TB every day. For an overview of all our TB-related projects, read our…

…Senior Program Officer, Humanitarian Grand Challenges. People affected by humanitarian crisis have the best understanding of the problems affecting them and will probably have the best solutions to those problems. In February, we launched Creating Hope in Conflict: a Humanitarian Grand Challenge, in partnership with USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). We are seeking life-saving or life-improving innovations to help the most vulnerable and hardest-to-reach people impacted by humanitarian crises caused by conflict. These innovations will involve a connection to the private sector and input from affected communities in order to provide, supply, or locally generate safe drinking water and sanitation, energy, life-saving information, or health supplies and services to help conflict-affected people. I’m really pleased that of the 615…the needs, who understand the problems the best, fail to have their voices heard. We have 615 ideas. We now need to choose the best ones. We’ll invite experts in the humanitarian system and people affected by conflict to review the most innovative and relevant applications. We’ll take advice from ethical experts and harness the…

…“Who do you like on Twitter?” This question was among the many in the arsenal of Communication personnel Katherine Hannemann and Zina Nelku as they interviewed me for the Summer Student program for 2013. My mind raced as, up until that point, I had been a passive follower on Twitter. Luckily, my brief exposure provided me with an answer that seemed to satisfy the web-savvy ladies in front of me. Once out of the interview room, it was overwhelmingly obvious to me that I had to work on getting…Shih pointed out in his blog post. I drew out a plan where I likened social media to an orchestra, where each platform played a different, but significant role in creating a harmony. As for the content, it was vastly different from promoting, say, mascara. But the core approach wasn’t very different. After all, both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors demanded a thorough understanding of target audience and constant revaluation of…

Dr. James Shultz is the co-principal investigator of the OSITA project in Colombia, supported by Grand Challenges Canada’s Global Mental Health program. For World Mental Health Day 2015, Dr. Shultz writes a blog post about two “heroes” of the OSITA project.  Mental health needs in Colombia are pervasive and population-wide. For eleven consecutive years, Colombia has consistently ranked first or second internationally in numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to armed conflict, a consequence of one of the world’s longest-running insurgencies. In addition to the continuous armed conflict, Colombia experiences significant narco-trafficking related violence as the world’s primary source of cocaine, community violence at the hands of gangs and criminal bands, and intra-familial and gender-based violence. In 2011,…Their work has been better than all other OSITA counsellors, including masters’ students, doctors, and trained psychologists. They have been extremely effective at recruiting, intervening, and following up with participants. There is not a single person in Colombia who is certified in interpersonal therapy/counselling, and there is no capacity for in-country training. The OSITA project…

…research and evaluation partnerships. “Since you came home from Jacaranda Maternity, have you had fever or chills?” asks Sharon, a Jacaranda Community Health Worker (CHW). Ruth* came to Jacaranda Health three days ago to deliver her healthy baby girl. When it was time to leave the hospital, Jacaranda nurses counseled Ruth –  as they do for all of our mothers – to make sure she and her newborn had the best opportunity to stay healthy once they returned home to Kasarani, just outside Nairobi. But this is just the beginning of Jacaranda’s commitment to Ruth and her baby. Sharon’s question comes from Jacaranda’s Postpartum Home Follow-Up Checklist, a series of screening questions Jacaranda’s Community Health Workers (CHWs) ask once our mothers are leaving for home. This is part of an innovative strategy to…use the checklists to conduct a comprehensive follow-up to reduce risk in the potentially dangerous time after delivery. The checklists guide CHWs to identify and refer danger signs early, and to provide reminders for essential counseling on topics like breastfeeding and cord care. Community Health Workers counsel the new mothers on the importance of seeking…with our referral and sought the recommended care. What are some of those risks? Newborn jaundice, infection and breast issues were among the most common complications we identified. Promote Healthy Postpartum Behaviour. Here’s what we already know: less-educated and poor women are less likely to receive postnatal care than their wealthier and more educated counterparts in…