The Columbia Global Centers I Nairobi hosted Prof. Terry McGovern and Dr. Marta Schaaf of the Department of Population and Family Health as well as graduate students during the kickoff exercise of the research exercise that seeks to evaluate the impact of paralegal services provided to survivors of gender-based violence in Kenya. The research study aims to give improve the wholesome capacity address in Gender Based Violence (GBV) between the law-justice and public health.
The research program is made possible through the President’s Global Innovation Fund (PGIF), with different actors including the Health Justice and Governance in the Department of Population and Family Health, ICAP- Department of Epidemiology, the Columbia University Law School, the Columbia Global Centers I Nairobi, the Kisumu-based Gender-Based Violence Recovery Center (GBVRC) at Jaramogi Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital (JOOTRH), and, Strathmore University in Nairobi.
Gender-Based Violence other forms of social injustices are view primarily from a Public Health perspective, the program seeks to deepen the intellectual exchange within our multi-disciplinary, multi-institution team, to better understand the context and other prevailing factors so as provide a product that can improve services in the GBV Recovery Clinics and GBV clinics.
The team through evaluating the provision of paralegal services in a Kenyan health setting will engage faculty and students from Columbia University School of Law and Mailman School of Public Health to design a study that incorporates knowledge from the fields of law and health systems, as well as research methods from legal and public health disciplines.
