In February, Kim Pearce met with Melissa Wallace, Adolescent and Socio-Behavioral Lead of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, to provide the Foundation with CosmoKidz and CosmoTweenz sets. The Desmond Tutu Health Foundation has made great strides in HIV education and prevention and they are now expanding their focus to include social and emotional behaviors. Melissa has been instrumental in the expansion of a Health Park for adolescents in Masiphumelele, adjacent to the Foundation’s research clinic site. The park’s focus has traditionally been on communicable disease prevention, but they are now extending this to non-communicable disease prevention (NDC) in young people to help influence behaviors that can reduce the development of NCD diseases in later life. The park has indoor and outdoor facilities to engage adolescents in healthy activities and CosmoKidz and CosmoTweenz will be used to strengthen the social and relational skills of the young people they serve. Melissa is also very excited about the CMM Institute Teen Fellows’ project to help address relational mental health in teens through the comic book they are currently developing. Once the comic book is completed later this year, she will add this to the CosmoKidz set of activities the Foundation has already begun using.

We are very excited about this partnership and look forward to additional ways the Institute and Foundation will work together on behalf of strengthening the social and relational skills of youth.