Building Regional Alliances to Nurture Child Health, an organization with the mission to empower community leaders in low-income countries to improve child health and safety, recently awarded its first Partner Grant to a Wayne State University School of Medicine faculty member.
Dena Nazer, M.D., F.A.A.P., assistant professor of Pediatrics for the WSU School of Medicine and chief of the Child Protection Center at Children's Hospital of Michigan, will use the grant to expand her ongoing work in training health professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of child maltreatment in Amman, Jordan.
"I am honored to be awarded the first Partner Grant from BRANCH," Dr. Nazer said. "I feel very passionate about preventing child maltreatment and feel education and working together are vital to keeping children safe. I am so excited to expand my efforts and use my expertise in Jordan, which is a country so dear to my heart. I feel that with this grant, I can bring together my passion for education, advocacy and love for Jordan!"
A Palestinian, Dr. Nazer was born in England and has lived there, in Saudi Arabia, in Jordan and in the United States. She now lives in Canada and commutes to WSU. She received her medical degree from the University of Jordan in 1998, and her family lives in Jordan.
"I am excited to give back to University of Jordan and to the children of Jordan," she said. "I am committed to doing my very best to make my collaboration with Jordan successful and to co-create a sustainable program in Jordan. Child maltreatment is preventable, and working together across different countries of the world and sharing the same message is definitely a step in the right direction."
She has been training heath care professionals in Jordan about the diagnosis and treatment of child maltreatment since 2008, giving lectures at Jordan University Hospital in Amman. The BRANCH grant will allow her to expand these efforts.
Child maltreatment, sometimes referred to as child abuse and neglect, includes all forms of physical and emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect and exploitation that results in actual or potential harm to the child's health, development or dignity, Dr. Nazer said. Child maltreatment is a global problem with serious lifelong consequences. The worldwide problem crosses all socioeconomic, educational, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
Jordan, she said, has become a "role model" for other countries in the Middle East in increasing public awareness of child maltreatment. The country's Queen Rania has pioneered efforts in establishing centers to aid in child maltreatment prevention and was instrumental in establishing the only therapeutic center in the region that offers psychological, medical, social and educational services to maltreated children. Other institutions in Jordan also are working to prevent child maltreatment and create greater public awareness of the problem.
"I aim to work with the Jordan River Foundation and the Jordan University Hospital Pediatric Program to coordinate the efforts of prevention with those of treatment," Dr. Nazer said. "We plan to work as a team to educate physicians and staff at the Jordan River Foundation on the different aspects of child maltreatment, as well as how to work together within a multidisciplinary team. I will use my expertise that I gained here in the U.S. from working at Kids-TALK Children's Advocacy Center with a multidisciplinary team, which has been very successful, and try to co-create a system in Jordan for different organizations to work together."
Opened in 2011, Kids-TALK Children's Advocacy Center in Detroit works with children suspected of being victims of sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect and other forms of psychological trauma. Dr. Nazer provides medical evaluations for the center.
She is unsure how much the grant will provide, but knows she will not be paid for her work. The two-year grant will cover her travel to Jordan and educational materials. She plans to live with her family in Jordan to save more money to develop the programs.
After graduating from the University of Jordan, Dr. Nazer continued her training at Children's Hospital of Michigan/Wayne State University, completing a residency in General Pediatrics and a fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics.
In March, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder appointed her to a three-year term on the state's new Human Trafficking Health Advisory Board. Ambassador Magazine, in May, named her one of its 2015 "Top Docs" for her work with, and on behalf of, children.