GCAHR directors travel to South Africa and Namibia for research collaborations

Last month, GCAHR researchers Flavio Marsiglia and Stephen Kulis visited South Africa and Namibia to discuss with their research partners possible future collaborations related to substance use prevention research.

Their first stop was in Cape Town, South Africa where they visited Nadine Harker, an associate professor at the University of Cape Town School of Public Health and Family Medicine and deputy director of the South Africa Medical Research Council. Harker is a leading researcher in the field of alcohol, drug and other substance use and works with her team on surveying it nationally. GCAHR began collaborating with her in 2022 to develop joint research proposals focused on addressing substance use through evidence-based programs.

During their visit, Marsiglia and Kulis met with Harker to explore the opportunities for collaboration, including the possibility of conducting a study evaluating the applicability and acceptability of keepin’ it REAL in communities in South Africa.

After visiting South Africa, they travelled to Namibia to meet Rachel Freeman, a former GCAHR African Initiatives Fellow who visited ASU in 2023 to study evidence-based substance use intervention and the implementation of GCAHR’s keepin’ it REAL program. Freeman is a senior lecturer and social scientist at the University of Namibia’s Department of Psychology and Social Work. Her research focuses on palliative care, alcohol and substance use and combating gender-based violence.

Marsiglia and Kulis met with Freeman to discuss the upcoming keepin’ it REAL pilot test in Windhoek, Namibia. The study is a randomized control trial that plans to recruit eight schools, four assigned to the experimental and four to the comparison group. Teacher training is scheduled to take place in July and the intervention will begin later this year in the fall.

Over the past several years, GCAHR has collaborated with partners in Sub-Saharan Africa in prior implementations of the keepin’ it REAL program in countries like Kenya and Nigeria. The center is looking forward to future collaborations with Harker and Freeman and other researchers around the world.