War Child Toolbox: Uganda
Overview:
In order to help the children of Uganda overcome barriers to mental healthcare, it is important to create a timeline which shows the background of the community, attempt to understand the mental health stigma and the interventions that have occurred or are currently in the works, and to interview someone from the community to get a better sense of what kind of help is needed.
COMMUNITY TIMELINE
In terms of the background of the community, it is important to understand the geographical context of Uganda. Sandra Agondeze, War Child’s research coordinator in Uganda gave our group a lot of clarity and context about this in her interview with us this past month.
Uganda within itself is not filled with war or violence. It is a safe-haven from the conflict in neighboring countries.
Uganda borders South Sedan, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania.
The refugee children that we are focusing on in our project mostly come from South Sudan, which is north of Uganda.
According to Human Rights Watch in their World Report, South Sedan is currently facing backlash from a harsh year of 2020. There have been major attacks on civilians and aid workers, inter-communal violence, sexual violence, and widespread general conflict which was enhanced by the covid-19 global pandemic.
The children coming out of South Sedan to Uganda are seeking refuge, safety, education, and opportunities for employment.
Sandra informed us that 60% of all of the refugees entering Uganda are children. Out of those 60%, 65% are unaccompanied children with about 45% in child-headed households — meaning that the oldest child acts as a parent to the younger children. The ages of these children range from babies to toddlers to adolescents to teenagers.
MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA
In terms of mental health stigma, Sandra enlightened us to the viewpoints of the people of Uganda regarding mental illness.
She told us about how mental illness can be commonly viewed as being a result of witchcraft, or a spiritual cause. Therefore, someone exhibiting symptoms of mental illness may be viewed as practicing witchcraft or being under a curse. This creates a barrier for seeking mental health services because sufferers are more inclined to hide or to seek spiritual help, as opposed to psychological assessment and western medicine.
MAPPING INTERVENTIONS
According to Toronto Star, in 2014, Grand Challenges Canada used a million dollar grant to train “witch doctors” and spiritual healers to identify people with psychological issues and mental illness and to refer them to psychologists.
More recently, interventions have included door to door mental healthcare visits by War Child and UNCHR.
In terms of issues with interventions, there is a massive lack of technology and transportation to deliver mental health services. Even with a possible mental illness being detected, it is difficult for children and families to seek the help that they need.
War Child has a system where they train everyday people in the community such as teachers to detect mental illness in children which is quite effective according to studies that have been conducted.
Myrthe van den Broek, one of our main contacts at War Child, showed that in a small-scale evaluation of the CCD tool, 75% of children with mental illness were correctly identified.
INTERVIEWING SANDRA
I would say that one of the best possible resources that we have had in our contact with War Child is out interview with Sandra Agondeze. She is native to Uganda and helped us to better understand the conditions of everyday life.
In terms of my toolbox, she has been influential in providing context in every section as she spoke about refugee lifestyle and provided statistics about the children in Uganda that can better help us understand how to navigate barriers to help-seeking — which is our main goal in working with War Child so far.
One of the most disheartening things to learn in our quest was about the lack of technology in Uganda because one of War Child’s objectives was to digitalize the community case detection tool in their care system.
Utilizing Our Toolkit Moving Forward:
For our project going forward, the information that has been gathered in my toolbox does not provide a clear path towards our objectives with War Child, but it provides so much valuable context. Context provides clarity, inspiration, and motivation to make a difference in the lives of the children of Uganda.
