“The majority of the world’s population lives in low-income countries with extremely limited access to mental health care. This gap is largest in African nations, which have the world’s lowest ratio of mental health professionals: just 1.4 per 100,000 people.

For more than a decade, a multinational team of researchers has been exploring ways to close that gap for nearly 50 million orphans in Africa who are grieving the loss of one or both parents. HIV/AIDS and respiratory infections are the leading cause of death.

Being orphaned predicts other problems – problems like substance abuse, dropping out of school, or unemployment. Orphans are also more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior that may lead to new cases of HIV — and perpetuate a vicious circle.

In 2005, Kathryn Whetten, director of the Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research (CHPIR), and her colleagues set out to examine predictors of physical and emotional well-being, cognitive development, relationship outcomes and achievement outcomes for a cohort of more than 3,000 orphaned and separated children (OSC) living in five low-income countries (Cambodia, India, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania).

Fourteen peer-reviewed papers, dozens of conference presentations and 12 years later, the “Positive Outcomes for Orphans” (POFO) project is still ongoing. Whetten, the principal investigator, was recently awarded a third round of funding for the project—a five-year, nearly $2.8 million National Institutes of Health grant.

CHPIR is continuing the National Evaluation of Quality of Childcare in El Salvador project (ENCCI), an evaluation of the Salvadorian government funded implementation of the Whole Child International intervention to improve the care of children in residential and child care settings.

As the new research project director, Dr. Hy Huynh traveled to El Salvador this October to visit child care centers, support office activities, as well as provide ethical humanitarian photography for Whole Child International’s visual storytelling purposes. Below is a selection of photos from his field work: