The children of Africa are the interdisciplinary focus of the Institute for the
African Child at Ohio University. We seek to promote research, teaching,
and service that consider children in the process of the African continent’s
socio-economic development. Children are Africa’s most marginalized
population group and a resource in need of the world’s attention. The Institute for the African Child expands the conversation among African
Studies scholars to include Ohio University’s Colleges of Communicaton,
Education, Health and Human Services, and Osteopathic Medicine. The
study of Africa has had a home at Ohio University for almost four decades,
and now we are applying our knowledge- in cooperation with African
institutions and scholars- to Africa’s most compelling challenge, the future
of her children.
There are clearly no one-dimensional problems in child survival and youth
issues in Africa. The intent of the Institute for the African Child is to
provide new interdisciplinary leadership for conferences, fellowships,
collaborative research and teaching, that will lead to better living standards
for the children of Africa. The African child is at once a niche of concern that
has an emotional impact, and entrée to the wider issues of the survival of
African women, families, communities and states. Our concern reaches the
children of Africa’s Diaspora as well in the context of the health-education-
information nexus.
