Profs. Paris & Lombe Build International Partnerships in Lesotho with BU Collaborators
Associate professors Ruth Paris and Margaret Lombe of BU School of Social Work (BUSSW) recently joined colleagues from the BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development on a knowledge-gathering trip to Lesotho, a country in southern Africa. Their aim was to identify opportunities to build upon the work of the Lesotho Boston Health Alliance (LeBoHA), a decades-long partnership between Boston University School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine and the Lesotho Ministry of Health, and to address social work and early childhood components of its proposed integrated primary care model.
In addition to Profs. Paris and Lombe, the travel group included BU Wheelock’s Dean David Chard and Professor Dina Castro, director of the BU Wheelock Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being where Paris serves as associate director for research.
The group met with a wide range of individuals working in early childhood care and education and social work-adjacent fields including faculty and academic leadership from the National University of Lesotho’s Department of Sociology and Social Work; the Lesotho College of Education; staff from LeBoHA and a local hospital, including a social worker and an occupational therapist; members of the ministries of education and social development; and a representative from the Roger Federer Foundation. They also met with the director of the Lesotho National Federation of Organizations of the Disabled and a social worker who leads a full immersion school for children with special needs, and visited early child care sites with the Network of Early Childhood Development of Lesotho (NECDOL).
The trip’s goal was to advance school and university initiatives to engage in global research and practice. Looking forward, Prof. Paris says they plan to develop research collaborations with staff at LeBoHA, the National University of Lesotho, and NECDOL. They also hope to develop a Center of Excellence on Early Childhood Well-Being and explore other opportunities for collaboration including field placements for MSW students interested in global health.
Associate Professor Ruth Paris is an expert in trauma and infant and early childhood mental health with a current focus on families challenged by parental substance use. With support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and other federal funders and private foundations, she has developed and evaluated multiple attachment-based interventions targeted at vulnerable families with young children.
Associate Professor Margaret Lombe specializes in social work and global health equity and serves as co-director of the BRIDGE Program, BUSSW’s pre-admission program for immigrants, refugees and their families. Her research focuses on the wellbeing of marginalized communities, including the stigmatization of people suffering from HIV/AIDS, food insecurity, and housing adversity in Boston and in African countries.