Empowering Women Through Climate- Responsive Community Health Information to Tackle Schistosomiasis

Programme title: Grand Challenges Africa: Accelerating Catalyzing Solutions for Climate Change's Impact on Health, and Gender

Project title: Empowering Women Through Climate- Responsive Community Health Information to Tackle Schistosomiasis

Description: 
Diana Karanja of COHESU in Kenya will develop a community health information system to reduce the burden of schistosomiasis in Kenya. They will implement the project in persistent hotspot areas of schistosomiasis near Lake Victoria. They will perform surveys to assess women's decision-making power in the household and how this correlates with schistosomiasis health outcomes for them and their families. The results will be used to inform communication strategies that improve these health outcomes. They will also train community healthcare providers to collect information on use of local water sources as a risk factor for water-borne transmission of the schistosomiasis parasite. This information will be integrated into existing predictive models of risk that will be used to develop an app. The app will provide simple messages and alerts, including information tailored based on the household surveys as well as seasonal updates on schistosomiasis risk.