The elderly African woman (above) takes care of her grandchildren after their parents died. At left is Jones Pilo, director of the an organization that helps provide food, school supplies and other needs for the family.

The Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine has received a $500,000 subcontract to help local community groups that provide critical care to some of the world's most vulnerable children in Malawi and southern Tanzania.

The Tulane Orphans Studies Program is partnering with Orphan Support Africa for the three-year project, according to Neil Boris, director of the Tulane Orphans Studies Program and an associate professor of community health sciences in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Orphan Support Africa received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

"Especially in the last decade, Malawi and Tanzania have experienced sharp increases in the number of orphans," says Boris, who is trained as a psychiatrist and pediatrician.

"Malawi will soon shoulder caring for the health and psychosocial needs of over one million orphans, nearly half of whom have been orphaned as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic."

Neil Boris, associate professor in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, talks with a youngster at a nutritional rehabilitation center at Malawi Children's Village, which was funded by returned Peace Corps volunteers who had worked in Malawi. (Photos by Michael Hill)

Orphan Support Africa, which received more than $2 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will use the grant to support existing community-based programs that offer comprehensive care to children, providing food, shelter, education, health care, recreation and psychosocial support.

The Tulane Orphans Studies Program will measure the impact of community-based organization services on vulnerable children and the effectiveness of various components of Orphan Support Africa's approach. These results then will be disseminated broadly to heighten awareness and quality of care for vulnerable children, as well as effect the reduction of the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The real-time assessments provided by Tulane will keep the initiative responsive and able to address the fluctuating needs of community groups, Boris says.

The overall goal of the program is self-sufficiency for each community-based organization through development of low-cost services, diversification of income sources and enhancement of revenue through income-generating activities.