Background
The Children in Crisis (CiC) Program seeks to address the health needs of children in humanitarian contexts. Over 400 million, or approximately one in six, children live in conflict zones. Nearly 37 million children are displaced due to conflict, poverty, or natural disasters. These children face disproportionate risks that have significant impacts on their ability to attain the highest level of health possible. In conflict settings, they are particularly vulnerable to harm from the loss of caregivers, disruption of social systems, direct violence, and limited access to pediatric health services. Understanding and responding to the unique needs of children in these environments is crucial to supporting children’s right to health and to prevent, mitigate, and address detrimental health consequences.
‍Mission
The CiC program partners with non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, donors, governments, and academic institutions to provide technical expertise and implementation support to address pediatric health needs in humanitarian contexts. By working collaboratively with partner organizations and communities, we help to define both immediate and long-term needs of affected populations, guide program development and implementation, and strengthen national and international resilience strategies. Our focus is on delivering targeted, effective, and sustainable interventions in collaboration with communities and partners.
‍Program Streams
CiC supports affected communities, partners, and governments through the following program streams: Knowledge Production, Technical Support, Education, and Policy and Advocacy.  

Current and Past Projects:

Supporting Boston Public School Nurses

In partnership with BCH’s Community Health Program and Boston Public School (BPS) nursing leadership, the GHP led a collaborative program to support the unique and critical needs of BPS nurses on the front lines during COVID.

Strengthening Pediatric Care in Rwanda: HRH Program and Beyond

Enhancing pediatric care in Rwanda by partnering with Human Resources for Health and the Rwandan Pediatric Partnership to advance pediatric training by providing distance learning for subspecialty education needs during the COVID pandemic.

Supporting Pediatricians to Care for Adults during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Launched in 2020, the Pediatric Overflow Planning Contingency Response Network (POPCoRN) is a multi-institutional initiative that supports pediatric physicians in providing adult care during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on collaboration, education, and health equity.

Postgraduate Pediatric Curriculum in Rwanda

The Human Resources for Health (HRH) Program, a 7-year capacity strengthening partnership between US academic institutions and the Rwandan Ministry of Health, ended in 2019. While the COVID-19 pandemic limited the ability to provide in-person post graduate teaching, our team helped bridge this gap by collobratively developing and implementing hybrid pediatric and public health training for resident physicians.

Improving Emergency Care in Bihar, India

BEPREPARED is a partnership with CARE-India and the Bihar State Ministry of Health to assess, design, implement and evaluate emergency care systems improvements. A multimodal intervention including equipment investment, renovation, just in time teaching and shoulder to shoulder mentorship emergency care was strengthened at five District Hospitals in Bihar State, India serving over 15 million people.

Assessing and Addressing COVID-19 Response in Humanitarian Settings

As the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, the GHP conducted the first large scale study to identify key COVID-related challenges and best practices in humanitarian settings. Conducted for the Global Health Cluster, this study informed WHO and country leaders on effective response strategies in humanitarian settings.

Evaluating COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness

Working with the WHO's High Threat Pathogen team and Albania's Institute of Public Health to evaluate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines among healthcare workers, focusing on vaccine impact, duration of protection, and effectiveness against emerging strains.

COVID Transmission and Morbidity in Malawi

During his infectious disease global health fellowship, Geoffrey Guenther MD, MPH and his collaborators investigated whether malaria or other parasitic diseases endemic to Malawi are playing a role in less severe illness from COVID-19 or are affecting the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Guenther works with partners in Malawi to support establishing research sites and training the study staff who will be working in the field to increase local infectious disease research capacity.