Aya Fujita is a doctoral student in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation under the supervision of Professor Frances Gardner and Dr Jamie Lachman. She examines the effectiveness and scale-up of disability-inclusive parenting interventions for parents of children with disabilities in low and middle-income countries. In particular, her research focuses on risk factors for child maltreatment among parents of children with disabilities, moderator effects, and the development of evidence-based disability-inclusive interventions and their adaptation to humanitarian contexts.
Alongside her studies, Aya works as a consultant for Parenting for Lifelong Health on the learning component of the scaling up parenting programmes in Uganda and Kenya, implemented by UNICEF and funded by the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.
Before joining the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, Aya worked in the humanitarian and development sector a number of years. As a Programme Coordinator for the Association for Aid and Relief Japan, an international NGO, she managed education-in-emergency and child protection projects in partnership with UNHCR for South Sudanese and Congolese refugees in Uganda. Aya has developed and implemented interventions for parents, teachers, and community leaders, such as disability inclusion training, peer support groups, classroom management training and training on girls’ education and protection. Aya has also worked on Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) technical cooperation projects promoting women’s empowerment and economic and social participation in Pakistan and other Asian countries.
She holds an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation from the University of Oxford, a BA in Healthcare Management from Nihon Fukushi University, and a BA in International Development from the University of Tsukuba. She is also a Japanese government-certified social worker.
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