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The end of a long, cold winter marks the start of warmer and brighter days for the Grand Challenges Canada office with the arrival of this year's summer students! The students are thrilled to be working alongside each other on various initiatives, and have already made a second home in the office. This year they will be helping the team with…Program Management  (Humber Business School), Completed a Bachelor's of Arts Degree in International Development - Rural and Agricultural Development (University of Guelph) I find Grand Challenges Canada’s support and strategy for scaling innovation particularly interesting. Barriers to scale can often hinder the potential impact of an otherwise important innovation. Grand Challenges Canada conducts critical analysis…can integrate a gendered approach into the Humanitarian Grand Challenge. I also hope to assist with the review and due diligence process for humanitarian innovations, contribute to designing a more blind innovation screen for the Humanitarian Grand Challenge and work with other students to better tell stories based on our impact. NIHA SHAMIM  Operations &…

Secondary health crisis expected with the loss of primary care for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health Toronto, November 17, 2020—Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), with funding from the Government of Canada, is increasing its investments in 14 innovative health and international development projects. Our support allows innovators to adapt their product to also provide novel, affordable and locally sourced resources, ideas and solutions to acquire critical COVID-19 supplies and services for low-resource countries during the…of the pandemic: people are not able to access quality primary health care. When a person’s first point of contact with health services is threatened, it’s a sign that overall health systems are failing; and mothers and children are usually first and most impacted.” In this light, these projects ensure primary care services are widely…Canada, Grand Challenges Canada has supported a pipeline of over 1,300 innovations in 106 countries. Grand Challenges Canada estimates that these innovations have the potential to save up to 1.78 million lives and improve up to 64 million lives by 2030. -30- For more information, please contact: Douglas Chow, Senior Manager, Communications Grand Challenges Canada…

World Malaria Day, on April 25, is a timely and welcome moment to raise awareness about malaria. The theme this year is ‘Invest in the future. Defeat malaria.’ About 3.4 billion people – half of the world's population – are at risk of getting malaria. It is a leading cause of premature mortality worldwide, particularly…than $12 million to this important threat to global health. Although many of these innovations are still in very early stages, we have started to see preliminary results.  For example, in Nairobi (Kenya) in Kibera – one of Africa’s largest slums – development of an integrated standardized patient medical record system that links and consolidates healthcare services has…spraying; diagnostic testing and treatment with quality-assured anti-malarial medicines; preventive therapies for infants, children and pregnant women; tracking every malaria case in a surveillance system; and scaling up the fight against emerging drug and insecticide resistance. About 19% of the innovations categorized under ‘infectious diseases’ in our Stars in Global Health portfolio are in the…rice farmers often live in improvised semi-open shacks, where they are disproportionately more exposed to infectious mosquito bites than the general population. Ifakara Health Institute (Tanzania) is designing portable and low-cost huts that are both fire-proof and mosquito-proof to prevent mosquito-borne illnesses, and hence increase productivity of these itinerant farming households. Outdoor mosquito control  …

Initial funding of $35 million (CAD) to support work in 13 low- and middle-income countries Being, an international mental health initiative to fund and support research and innovative approaches that improve the mental wellbeing of young people aged 10 to 24 in low- and middle-income countries, launched today. The initiative is hosted by Grand Challenges Canada (GCC), in partnership with Fondation Botnar of Switzerland and United for Global Mental Health, whose expertise and worldwide network will support advocacy, stakeholder engagement and other vital functions, and with institutional support from Global Affairs Canada. Being is…almost 46,000 adolescents die from suicide every year, putting it among the top five causes of death for their age group. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), up to 90% of the mental health needs of young people are going unmet due to a lack of resources. “Today, mental health challenges affect one in five…decisions are made by those living closest to the challenges to be overcome and approaches allowed to evolve. By supporting young people and their communities, Being is designed to build on relationships, knowledge, expertise and the personal investment of local stakeholders in order to unlock sustainable and scalable solutions for youth mental health.” Being will…Senegal, India, Morocco, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Vietnam – with the aim of creating supportive communities where young people have the means and agency to promote their wellbeing according to their needs. These initial priority countries were selected for their fast-growing urban environments – a special focus of interest for the initiative. Objectives…the public, private and nonprofit sectors, and to engage with young people whose experiences and perspectives can help drive and create the agenda.”  The co-founders of Being invite participation from other potential partners. Institutional supporters to date include Global Affairs Canada. In the coming months, Being will finalize a partnership with a partner based in…

…likely unknown because fear, embarrassment, intimidation, or sense that it will simply not help limits reporting. In many areas, victims of family violence suffer in silence, due to the limited availability of healthcare, the lack of social support services or stigma. These issues are central to Canada’s foreign and domestic policies and our nation is…12 innovative projects that address this global issue. This represents an investment of $3.3 million. Rape is an intolerable form of violence and a major risk factor for HIV. Stigma and taboo are some unique barriers that prevent victims reporting rape to authorities. Researchers lack alternative tools to identify the extent of the problem in…be announced new project in the Democratic Republic of Congo is testing whether a mental health intervention on mothers who are victims of sexual violence has a significant and positive effect on brain development of their infants. The intervention will be delivered as part of a post-natal health program, using a delivery system that can…training resulted in a statistically significant improvement in the girls’ outcomes in a game designed to simulate real world behavior. This project received follow-on funding for scale up through USAID Development Innovations Venture program (DIV). In Ethiopia, the Biaber Project developed and delivered a training system to teach health care providers to screen for domestic partner…healing networks to address their mental health issues. Grand Challenges Canada is supporting a project that will create a network of Haitian community services and caregivers to promote mental health, to offer psychosocial services and, specifically, to oppose family violence, abuse and the potential mental health problems caused. This is complemented by a school based…

Dr. Patrick T Kagurusi is the Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) Program Technical Advisor for Amref Health Africa and is based in Kampala, Uganda. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @pkagurusi. Jennifer Foulds is the Communications and PR Director for Amref Health Africa in Canada, based in Toronto. Follow Amref Health Africa in Canada on Twitter at @AmrefCanada. In a mountainous region in southwestern Uganda, the health of mothers and their newborn babies is improving thanks to an innovative tool that brings environmentally-sustainable solar power to health centres that used to go dark when the sun went down. The tool? The We Care Solar Suitcase, a self-contained solar electric system designed to support maternal and child health care. It powers medical lights, a fetal heart rate monitor, cell phones, headlamps, and a laptop computer programmed with educational materials, as well…to help get pregnant women and their babies to seek care at facilities when appropriate. Community Health Workers were trained on community mobilization, maternal and newborn danger sign identification, case referral and data collection to provide vital information for the local and the national Ministry of Health. Health care workers receive specialized training on maternal…

With the first week of May comes the return of the Grand Challenges Canada Summer Student Program. As always, the program is an incredible opportunity for students to build skills and experience in their fields of interest while supporting Grand Challenges Canada projects and programs across a wide range of departments. This year, Grand Challenges …have an MSc from McMaster University, where I established my interest in health professions education as capacity-building. I chose the Saving Brains Program because I think that promoting healthy child development is vital to minimizing the harmful effects of poverty and conflict, and key to helping children reach their potential. Throughout this internship, I hope…cold chain logistics for middle and low income countries. I am currently halfway through my MBA at the Rotman School of Management. I’m originally from Montreal, grew up in Hong Kong, and moved to Toronto from Los Angeles. Prior to Rotman, I worked at the University of California, Los Angeles. I’m interested in working at…in Environmental Determinants of Health and International Development from McGill University in 2015, I returned to Kigali, Rwanda as an OceanPath Fellow to manage the cultivation of community-designed health resources for people living with diabetes. After a year of devouring data, developing documentaries, dodging dala dalas, and dipping my toes into the realm of global…

Young people (aged 0-24) make up nearly half of the world’s population. The majority, 90%, live in low- and middle-income countries. And while young people may be consulted, they rarely have the opportunity to lead or share in decision-making on issues that affect them, including their mental health. Around 75% of mental health challenges begin before age 24. Yet, current mental…and their lived experiences and needs are guiding our funding priorities and programming. The initiative is hosted by Grand Challenges Canada, in partnership with Fondation Botnar, United for Global Mental Health, Global Affairs Canada, and The UK’s Department of Health and Social Care using UK aid through the National Institute for Health and Care Research…the initiative and help create an ecosystem that drives positive and lasting change for their wellbeing. Being’s Youth and Lived Experience Advisory Groups launched last month to promote further the participation of young people and people with lived experience in the initiative. These groups comprise youth and people with lived experience across Being’s 13 priority…advisors’ support and continued commitment to improving mental health and wellbeing for all. To stay updated with all Being and mental health-related news at Grand Challenges Canada, sign-up for the Global Mental Health mailing list! Youth Advisors Aishwarya Sai Lakshmi, Youth Coordinator, citiesRISE, India Aishwarya is a youth leader based out of Chennai who has…