Dr. Patty Van Cappellen’s “What is Hope?” Project has also been expanded beyond the United States.
We are collaborating with Dr. Kim Madundo at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) in Tanzania, a country in Eastern Africa. Dr. Madundo, is a psychiatrist and specializes in mental health topics including suicidality, depression, trauma, alcohol use, and intervention development.
Hope story interviews will be conducted with 20 participants from Tanzania, including Christian and Muslim leaders. Our goal is to be able to expand our understanding of hope to be inclusive of what the lived experience of hope looks like across cultures and religions. To learn more about the hope story interview visit the Stories of Hope page!
Our research team, led by Dr. Megan Edwards, traveled to Moshi, Tanzania in August of 2025 to meet with the collaboration team at KCMC. The team also included Mannes Matous, OP (doctoral student) and Chris-Ann Bennett (undergraduate student) who were a part of the Duke University Bass Connections “What is Hope?” Project Team in the Fall ’24/Spring ’25 school year.
Data collection for this phase of the project is currently ongoing throughout Fall 2025. Hopefully, we will be able to expand research efforts to additional countries in the future.
