About us
Working at the nexus of environmental and human health, the Children’s Health and Environmental Research Institute - Afrika (CHERI-Afrika) is dedicated to identifying expectant mothers’ exposure to environmental health risks and addressing its impact on birth outcomes.
We live in an era of increasing air pollution and rapid climate change. Coupled with socioeconomic challenges, this renders millions of people vulnerable to hazardous exposure and potential harm to their health. For moms-to-be, it may result in adverse birth and child health outcomes, including preterm birth, a low birth weight, foetal growth abnormalities, and birth defects. CHERI-Afrika applies the “One Health” approach in the African context to identify, monitor and mitigate women and their unborn children’s potential harmful exposure, and to craft multidisciplinary strategies to shield our next generation from adverse health impacts.
A research non-profit, CHERI-Afrika serves as an umbrella initiative and envisages the establishment of several collaborative research chapters across the African continent over time.
Our goals
01
Building a sound database: We aim to work with healthcare and academic institutions, communities, and health authorities to integrate various data sources, creating a comprehensive database on population health and environmental pollution.
02
Conducting rigorous research: We will work across disciplines to study the impact of air pollution and other environmental hazards on adverse birth outcomes through patient and community engagement research using a geographic information systems (GIS) framework.
03
Collecting reliable evidence: We seek to generate accurate and reliable scientific evidence of the link between environmental health risks and adverse birth outcomes.
04
Capacity Building: We seek to train and mentor undergraduate and postgraduate students from various disciplines in children’s environmental health research.
05
Feeding into policies and strategies: We intend to use the evidence we generate to spur policymakers, strategists and legislators into action, feeding our findings into data-driven and implementable strategies and plans to reduce emissions and prevent adverse birth outcomes.
How to get involved
Collaborate
We are calling all health institutions, researchers, clinicians and community organizations to champion the development and maintenance of good quality population health databases and environmental pollution /emissions databases for the purposes of children’s environmental health research.
Educate
Education is the key to change community and people’s behaviour through active participation and engagement in environmental health research. This will be in the form of research training opportunities for students at primary, secondary and tertiary schools, outreach programs to raise awareness in communities about environmental pollution and adverse health outcomes.