Nurturing the Global Child

Women's Group on Maternal Health and Child Health | Image by Pavani K. Ram | University at Buffalo.

Women's Group on Maternal Health and Child Health | Image by Pavani K. Ram | University at Buffalo

Approximately 17,000 children die worldwide every day, 44% of which occur in the first month of life, often from preventable causes. Meanwhile up to 1 billion children and youth aged 2–17 years experience physical, sexual, or emotional violence or neglect, which has ramifications for physical and mental health well into adulthood. Effective medical, behavioral, and social interventions exist, yet scalability – working across borders and sectors – remains a challenge. To nurture vulnerable children and adolescents into healthy adulthood, we join global initiatives, such as those led by USAID, helping to deliver effective practices and policies that improve child and adolescent health and wellbeing.

Our team brings together expertise from public health, social work, pediatrics, and the humanities. We are furthering novel and risky ideas to advance child and adolescent survival: developing portable multimodal imaging for early detection of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy resulting from birth asphyxia, identifying and illuminating how social policies impact morbidity and mortality, and unlocking social norms that influence family planning among adolescents.

Global Child Discussion Series 2021

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Our Working Solutions

University at Buffalo faculty member Dr. Pavani Ram with community partners.

University at Buffalo faculty member Dr. Pavani Ram with community partners

Identifying needs Testing Options Evaluating Solutions Scaling Up
  • Social Policy and Child Health
    2/17/21
    Governments around the world create social policies that aim to improve their communities’ health, economic well-being, schooling and more. Policies not directly aimed at improving health may still have unintended effects (positive or negative) on the health of a population.
  • Social Policy and Systems of Oppression
    6/12/20
    Dr. Shaanta Murshid’s research lies at the intersection of social policy and systems of oppression, like patriarchy and capitalism. With degrees in business and public policy, and an appointment in social work, Dr. Murshid takes both a macro and micro perspective to her research.

Our Articles and Reflections

In the News

Our Team

Our work is done in collaboration with many talented community partners. We list these partners on the affiliated project pages.