No Health Without Mental Health

On 10 October every year, the world celebrates the World Mental Health Day. This year St. Martin CSA organized the first ever world mental health day celebration in Laikipia County. These celebrations were held in Oljabet town which is a small rural town near Nyahururu to raise the awareness for mental health and available support services. About 300 people from all walks of life attended the event.

Throughout the world, mental health is becoming more and more a topic and there’s a growing recognition of the importance of building mental resilience. Mental illness is common in Kenya, with prevalence rates of 4% for major mental disorders, which is comparable with the prevalence rates reported in high-income countries. Poverty, unemployment, internal conflict, displacement and HIV add to the mental health burden. In front of this background, St. Martin CSA has recently launched a pilot mental health project that aims at improving the quality of life of people living with mental illness.

The activity involved people living with mental illnesses, their caretakers, members of the public, representatives of the Ministry of Health of Laikipia County, police department, local administration and local community leaders. The celebrations started with a prayer led by the Marmanet Anglican Church Parish priest followed by a procession around Oljabet Trading centre and later a learning session in the mhd18 3 Marmanet Catholic Parish Hall, where several persons living with mental illness and their caregivers gave testimonies of their experiences with illnesses. Their forthcoming was appreciated officially by the representative of the Laikipia County Government, Mrs Jane Kabiru, on behalf of Dr Richard Mugoi, chief officer in the Ministry of Health of Laikipia County. Corporal Clehanse Abdallah represented the Security Forces, and several local Chiefs underlined the significance of the topic for the local population.

Special thanks go to the volunteers of the mental health project as well as the members of the management committee, and staff of St. Martin CSA for their efforts in launching this project and of course organizing the day. Further thanks are directed to the County Government of Laikipia who co-founded the budget of the day with the mental health project.

Details: Created: 31 October 2018

What we do

Empower parents socially and economically

parents

These are parents and guardians of vulnerable children in the community. They are plagued by a myriad of vices which trap them into poverty and therefore are not able to provide for their children. The project works with these parents as a proactive strategy of solving the problem of street connected children. Parents are encouraged to join support groups for social support, counseling, empowerment on parenting skills and economic empowerment. Groups are expected to grow their savings by loaning each other for economic development.

Jaza Kikapu - Fill the Basket

jaza kikapu

In 2020, we launched Jaza Kikapu (fill a basket) concept to mobilise resources to support poor women headed households. Jaza Kikapu goal is to enhance and promote the unique role played by women on the family, community and societal level by empowering them and creating an enabling environment for their full participation in the development agenda. Women play an indispensable role in community development as weavers of the social fabric and caregivers. It is broadly designed to uplift poor households through the potential of women and hereby enable them to fully participate in the development of the communities.

Advocacate for Child Protection

advocacy

The programme works with different stakeholders involved in child protection matters to advocate for child protection and resolve issues of violated children in a timely and child-inclusive manner in line with their best interests. The programme undertakes the following activities;

Educating the public through radio shows and awareness creation on matters of children
Collaborating with the government agencies and civil societies on activities that enhance the promotion of child rights
Working with local and national networks in the field of child protection.
Empowerment of direct beneficiaries by providing information on the existing initiatives by government and organization that provides for their rights.

Strenghten the capacity of Child Right Promoters

child right promoters

These are volunteers who are drawn from the community and are empowered to act as community TOTs, and supported to implement activities in churches, schools, public meetings and other fora with the aim of sensitizing the community on child rights. These volunteers are headhunted from among church school teachers, duty bearers and primary school teachers. In addition to awareness creation, they mobilize resources from their communities to support vulnerable children and shed lights on abuses facing children. The programme is currently working with 130 volunteers in various parts of Nyahururu, and Nyandarua.

News