In order to help adolescent mothers in Harare, Zimbabwe, Assistant Professor Chiwoneso Tinago and her research colleagues were awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Recently, West Chester University’s Assistant Professor Chiwoneso Tinago and her research colleagues won a $100,000 Round 20 Grand Challenges Exploration Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop and test a community-based peer-support intervention for adolescent mothers in Harare, Zimbabwe. Her research colleagues include University of South Carolina’s Director of Global Health Initiatives Edward Frongillo and Postdoctoral Associate Andrea Warren; University of Zimbabwe’s Dr. Florence Muchirahondo; and Executive Director of SpeakUp! Martie Bernicker.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
To promote its mission that every life has equal value, this foundation strives to help all people to lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, the foundation emphasizes improving people’s health and giving them the chance they need to escape famine and poverty. For people in the United States, it ensures that all people have access to educational opportunities for their personal success.
The Zimbabwe Intervention:
Tinago and her team will work with these adolescent mothers in a peer-support group structure that will leverage the combined efforts of community health workers, technology, and stakeholders to lessen the stigma surrounding Zimbabwe’s adolescent mothers. The intervention builds on the research conducted by Tinago and her team with Zimbabwe’s adolescent girls and young women, and will be centered around teaching them parenting and communication skills, and coping mechanisms.
“I am proud of the work that Assistant Professor Tinago and her colleagues have embarked upon to help uncover viable solutions that will make a difference in the lives of many,” said West Chester University President Christopher Fiorentino. “We at West Chester University are honored that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is funding one of our own for this invaluable research.”
Initial grants are awarded at $100,000 each, and successful projects are eligible to receive follow-on funding of up to one million dollars.
