This interdisciplinary, cross-cultural study seeks to understand pathways for sustaining flourishing mental health among caregivers of orphans living in four countries (India, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Cambodia) and of four religious traditions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism). This qualitative and quantitative study includes interviews, surveys, and diaries. The findings aim to advance theoretical concepts of stress, coping, and well-being; to inform the measurement of virtue; and to provide practical guidance on how caregivers in challenging contexts can flourish.

The BASIC project aims to evaluate the scaling-up of task sharing the delivery of mental health care for orphaned children in Bungoma County, Kenya. More specifically, it will investigate suggestions from previous studies that partnering with two government sectors, education and health, could be a low-cost and sustainable strategy to implement Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) in this population.

Purpose: The National Evaluation of Quality of Child Care in El Salvador project worked with Whole Child International (WCI), and examined whether changes in 1) institutional structure and environments, 2) caregiver and parental/guardian knowledge, attitudes, and child rearing practices, and 3) caregiver and parental/guardian health and emotional well-being made an impact on child outcomes in El Salvador.

Purpose: This funding supported the adaptation of the WCI-QCUALS to an Indian-specific residential care context for children and young adults ages 6-18. In collaboration with NITI Aayog (National Institute of Transforming India), Whole Child International, and Hope Institute, the assessment tool is to be tested in residential care centers around different states of India for the purpose of hypothesis building for future research studies and interventions.