Miami Student Grant Writers

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a disease experienced by 19-22% of women aged 25-27 years old in rural Southern India, with 92.5% unable to access care due to stigma associated with mental health (Shriraam et al., 2019).  Untreated PPD is associated with increased infant and maternal mortality and morbidity, highlighting the urgent need for targeted
interventions and destigmatization efforts which our proposal addresses. 

India has been called the oral cancer capital of the world (Kalyanpur et al., 2012).  Oral cancer is associated with behavioral and lifestyle risk factors including tobacco and areca nut consumption, poor oral hygiene, and lack of education and resources (Borse et al., 2020).   Through increasing awareness of oral cancer symptoms and risk factors like tobacco, and providing oral cancer screenings to diagnose oral cancer in early stages, we can dramatically reduce the mortality of oral cancer in India.

There are many taboos surrounding receiving sexual education in urban India, which can result in sexually transmitted infections. Through our project we hope to reduce the prevalence of STIs amongst Bangalore college students and promote awareness of sexual education among higher education students.

For girls, the lack of education about and access to menstrual hygiene products leads to chronic school absenteeism and even dropping out of school (Ciardi Sassone et al., 2022; Garg et al., 2012; Jalan et al., 2020). Our project will ensure that young girls are
empowered to manage their menstrual health, reduce absenteeism, and have sustained access to
reusable, safe, and hygienic menstrual products.

Suicide is a significant problem among agricultural workers in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra,
India (Prakash et al., 2021; Mishra, 2014). We propose an effective mental health intervention combined with a social business  to promote financial sustainability which together will address the issue of agricultural workers committing suicide.

Depression-related suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst women ages
15-29 in Tamil Nadu, India (Vijakakumar et al., 2015). Due to stigma surrounding both depression and the patriarchal structure of Indian society, women have more significant barriers to treatment for
undiagnosed depression (Ibrahim 2020; Slomian, 2019; Jahan, 2021).  “Let’s Sit On It” will empower rural women with depression  to build community and improve support for their depression.

Studies have shown that 39% of medical students in India will experience a mental health issue
but they refuse to seek treatment because of issues of stigma (Arun et al., 2021).  Through destigmatization workshops and off-campus counseling, the proposed project will improve the mental health wellbeing of medical students in Delhi.

India is home to the largest adolescent population in the world , however people  15-24 are likely to have received little or no formal reproductive or sexual health education (Chakraborty & Mishra, n.d.; Ismail et al., 2015).  This project proposes an interactive design tool to sustainably provide young women with accurate reproductive health information.