By Ruth Atim
apearlnews.com
The COVID crisis sparked a dramatic rise in the number of people
experiencing mental health problems in Uganda, with 14 million people of
the 437 million population having a mental illness, according to the Lancet
Psychiatry.
As people grappled with health, social, and economic impacts, mental health
has been widely affected. Plenty of us became more anxious but for some,
COVID-19 sparked or amplified much more serious mental health problems.
problems. A great number of people have reported psychological distress.
and symptoms of depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress.
Sandra Aceng, a Human Rights Defender (HRD), is part of the statistic that
endured mental health challenges.
It wasn’t until November 2020 that she realized she’d have to seek support. She’s always been apprehensive, but The pandemic gave her crippling health anxiety.
It was the dry season at that time was approaching, and that’s when she knew that the heat would exacerbate
her mental health.
“I couldn’t fall asleep, and when I did, I experienced nightmares,” she says.
Sandra. But her life changed when she read a WhatsApp message calling for
applications from HRDs who would like to seek mental health support
which she applied for and was accepted into the program two days later.
Prior to joining the mental health space, Sandra had a fear of contracting
the virus. “The fear and imagination of being lonely and sick brought a very
uncomfortable feeling deep in my stomach, you want to leave and survive in
darkness because you feel consumed and wrecked from the inside and out,
That’s the feeling I tried tooth and nail not to fall victim to, but I failed. "
Sandra would hold her head and scream loudly in her room because of the random thoughts that roamed her mind.
Admitting having a mental Illness is the hardest pill to take, and many people are still struggling with it.
because they can’t easily tell when it creeps in.
The training that started a week after Sandra got accepted was facilitated by
Moses Karis Oteba, a Human Rights Defender (HRD) who has spent the
better part of his career life understanding the mental health risks faced by
fellow human rights advocates.
Like him, Human Rights Defenders
Demand extraordinary resilience and courage because they often work.
under immense pressure, which put them at greater risk of anxiety,
depression, and PTSD This adversely impacts their mental health, forcing
some to exit the profession entirely.
With a background in psychology, Mr. Oteba uses his skills and experiences to
in expressive arts to address stress and trauma and has taken the lead in
integrating mental health into the protection of HRDs. This gives a more detailed
holistic approach to HRD security and protection. His art therapy included
creative techniques such as painting, listening to music, and penning random
ideas, and coloring, which assisted HRDs such as Sandra in situations
where words failed to come out.
"This approach allowed me to explore my most private and frequently
concealed emotions. It was a tremendous tool for me to securely contain my
terrible experience of trauma; I was able to feel emotions, ideas, and
“memories, particularly those that I could not express via words,” Sandra
notes.
Sandra also learned to be intentional about taking a break.
when she needed to, having people with positive energy around her and
doing things that make her happy, like watching a movie and spending time with her
with friends, sleeping enough, and lighting candles.
Oteba’s mother, a community psychosocial support person, inspired his
training, and he describes her as a role model since she played a big role in
helping people within her community deal with mental health issues. He
emulated his mother and created the virtual training series on mental
health that helped many HRDs like Sandra sail through the first and
second lockdowns. His sessions have addressed issues around anxiety and
depression, which Oteba says was caused by the pandemic’s social isolation,
loneliness, dread of infection, suffering, and death for oneself and those loved
ones, and financial problems. From the look of things, it also prompted
suicidal thoughts. Still, he advises everyone to be deliberate in taking care of
themselves and ensuring their mental sanity is in good shape.
Karis, through his work, also developed mental health and
Wellbeing Toolkit for Journalists and Other Human Rights Defenders This
kit is a collection of resources that introduces a particular theme or topic.
ranging from coping with loneliness, coping in an uncertain world, and juggling
work and parenting, mental health for small workplaces, among others. and
It’s a resource that many survivors refer to occasionally.
Throughout his career, Oteba, who has a Master’s in Psychology from the
The University of South Wales has worked to shed light on some of the mental
health issues that HRDs face and has successfully lobbied for mandatory
mental health sessions at HRDs’ workspaces. Remote mental health
Services are also now being provided, especially for those with severe and
complex mental health conditions. This has played a big role in supporting
Human rights defenders who are at risk of having mental health cases
This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union.
Its contents are the sole responsibility of Ruth Atim and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the European Union.
