As South Africa concludes the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children Campaign, three early-career scientists from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) are already rolling up their sleeves to turn the spotlight on sexual violence and mental health interventions in higher education institutions (HEIs).
From January 2022 to March 2025, Drs Pinky Mahlangu, Mercilene Machisa and Carrie Brooke-Sumner will lead a study primarily aimed at contributing to evidence-based, combined interventions in the country’s higher education campuses that reduce mental ill-health and the experience of SV among first-year female students, and LGBTQI women.
This mixed method study comprising qualitative and quantitative research methods, will be conducted with enrolled female, and LGBTQI women students.
According to the trio, the newly funded project will be impactful and contribute to the development and testing of evidence-informed and context specific combined interventions which address the dual occurrence of SV and mental-ill health, important public health problems amongst female and gender nonbinary students in South African higher education. This, they say is in line with the National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence and Femicide (NSP GBVF) which was developed with significant inputs of the SAMRC’s Gender and Health researchers– The NSPGBV prioritises identifying, testing, and expanding promising, innovative interventions in critical areas including substance abuse, mental health, and LGBTQI persons.
A sentiment shared by the three Principal Investigators (PIs) is that the study and its envisaged findings are thus relevant and would contribute to national priorities to address violence against women and LGBTQI persons. “In the longer term, if the interventions developed and tested through this study are proven effective, they may be scalable nationally and to other Sub-Saharan African countries where SV and mental health interventions for students in higher education are lacking.”
The three-year study will be made possible through the SAMRC Intramural Early – Mid Career Researcher Flagship Award, which Mahlangu, Machisa and Sumner were recently announced as joint second place recipients. The trio were among many young scientists who heeded the organisation’s call earlier this year to apply for the flagship funding. This is a unique funding mechanism designed to support research in important areas of morbidity and mortality that have, over the years, been under-resourced. Following a vigorous selection and approval process, theirs and two other projects were deemed as deserving and selected for funding.
On receiving this flagship funding for this study, they said as early career scientists, they are excited and exceptionally grateful. “This grant will provide us the opportunity to develop as research leaders but most importantly, allows us to conduct research which benefits the health and wellbeing of female and LGBTQI women in South Africa’.
Both Drs Pinky Mahlangu and Mercilene Machisa are specialist scientists within the Gender and Health Research Unit (GHRU) while Dr Carrie Brooke-Sumner, also a specialist scientist, is within Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit (ATODRU).