Global Health Project Wins Duke $10K STEAM Challenge

STEAM challenge winners

Photo by Duke Today

Published January 28, 2014, last updated on April 9, 2018 under Education News

A Duke student project aimed at increasing the use of a hydrating therapy to treat diarrhea in India has won a $10,000 grand prize in the STEAM Challenge.

Congratulations to Duke sophomores Saffana Humaira, Suhani Jalota, Rebecca Lai and Kehaan Manjee, for their project to teach young Indian girls about oral rehydration therapy. Hydration therapy uses a sugar and salt-water solution to treat dehydration caused by diarrhea. 

The team targets adolescent girls specifically for this public health campaign because young women in India often bear much of a family's domestic duties, including caring for younger children and elderly family members, Humaira added. And puppetry was chosen as a delivery tool for the public health message because puppets are a popular cultural and entertainment tool in Bihar, the Indian state that the team is targeting.

"Combining the arts and social sciences, their plan to educate young school girls about oral rehydration therapy demonstrates that global health solutions, even if technologically simple, can be effective only by using culturally relevant ways to engage with communities," said Duke professor Subhashini Chandrasekharan, one of the competition's judges and an affiliate of the Duke Global Health Institute.

The inaugural Duke STEAM Challenge tapped into a broad swath of academic disciplines, from math, science and engineering to the humanities and social sciences.

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