Laudable Efforts are being initiated  by Dr ASHOK MALLA Professor of Psychiatry at McGrill University  Montreal to grant   in Global Mental Health a pilot project of $50,000 for the benefit of thousands of displaced community of kashmir since their forced “exile”in Jammu. The community has been facing health hardships  due to strain ,stress and pain of forced migration.Dr Ashok Malla is being  assisted by his two colleagues  at McGrill , Dr Jai Shah and Dr Svidya Iyer  ,involved in a similar  pilot project in Ganderbal Kashmir for the locals mentally deranged as  aftereffects of  recent Floods in Kashmir.

Dr Malla is being assisted by two more Drs from Jammu ,Dr Bushan koul  and Dr Jeetender in the augmentation and implementation of the proposed  project  in Jammu city..

Dr Malla writes  “We have been thinking of situating this  pilot project among the displaced thousands of our community in Jammu which is bound to have created enormous hardships for people. As we know hardships lead to health problems, especially mental health problems. I am at the end of another pilot project in Ganderbal district funded through Grand Challenges Canada, the latter could be a future source of a grant for the Jammu project if we are successful with the pilot we are applying for. There are other options as well in future.”

The grant is likely to be sanctioned by the end of July 2016.

A look at Mc Grill university Global Health Programms will be beneficial to know  details about its laudable work throughout the world.

The vision of McGill Global Health Programs (GHP) is “to address health inequities and improve global health through education, research, and partnerships”.  A key goal for GHP is to facilitate and conduct innovative, interdisciplinary, collaborative, and policy-relevant research to address critical global health challenges and priorities.

Although McGill has nearly 20 active research teams or centers and over 100 individuals working in global health, there is insufficient collaboration between these groups, and interdisciplinary research remains challenging. The importance of interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral work is also emphasized in the new Sustain”

Description of the Seed Grant Program:

“The goal of the Steinberg Fund for Interdisciplinary Global Health Research is to catalyze innovative and impactful global health research at McGill & affiliated hospitals, by providing seed grants that can help launch new, interdisciplinary global health research projects and make them competitive for sustained external funding.

Areas of focus for the program are purposely forward thinking and aim to address global health issues that are emerging and will increase in importance over the coming decade. In some areas McGill already is a leader and in others GHP is pushing researchers to think about how they can contribute to building strength in this important topic.

To support Seed Grant awardees the Global Health Programs office will be conducting a series of small, action oriented workshops around new, non-traditional sources of funding for global health projects.

Seed grants will be awarded on two levels either $25,000 or $50,000. Grants are non-renewable. Duration of the seed grant projects should be 12 to 18 months. Approximately 4 – 5 grants are expected to be funded in each wave. There will be three waves of funding. ”

Eligibility Criteria:

·        ” Faculty Members of McGill or affiliated hospital teams or centers working in global health can compete for these seed grants (see further details below).

·         The research must be conducted in a low or middle income country, or conducted in a resource-poor setting within Canada (e.g. aboriginal/refugee populations).

·         Applications from varying specialties within global health, including but not limited to medicine, nursing, health sciences, humanities, epidemiology, public health, and health policy are encouraged to apply.

·         Proposals must include collaborations between two departments or centers at McGill/affiliated hospital. For example surgery and physical/occupational therapy working together on a rehabilitation project; nutrition researchers working with nurses on a project; collaborative research between TB and AIDS Centers.”

Dr Madhu Pai  as new Director of Global  Health Progams has initiated a number of regions with research faculty and project building capacities to countries like India , Haiti, Peru, South Africa and Northern Canada.

Great efforts by McGrill Gobal Health Programs are admirable and laudable.