Fred Ssewamala, the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor at the Brown School, along with colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis, has received $5.7 million in two separate grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), for his work in sub-Saharan Africa.
Along with research assistant professors Proscovia Nabunya and Ozge Sensoy Bahar, Ssewamala was awarded a five-year $2.4 million grant to examine the longitudinal impacts of an economic empowerment intervention on HIV risk prevention and care continuum outcomes among orphaned youth transitioning to young adulthood.
In addition, Ssewamala has received a five-year $3.3 million grant to address child behavioral health among school-going children in Uganda.
He will share the grant with Mary McKay, vice provost of interdisciplinary initiatives.
The study, Suubi4StrongerFamilies (2022-27), builds on more than 10 years of research findings in sub-Saharan Africa to examine the mechanisms by which economic empowerment and family-strengthening interventions targeting social, familial and context-specific drivers affect childhood behavioral health among adolescents in primary schools in Uganda.