Mental health and well-being improvement of students under the Tunaweza Inclusive Education project

Under the Tunaweza Inclusive Education project, improving mental health among students was another focus point for the project. This project’s implementation was during the peak time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Schools opening and closing, money scarcity everywhere, and overall lifestyle changes for most people. Focusing on the mental health of students living with disabilities was very crucial because whatever the rest of the students were facing, they were facing it on a more advanced scale. We conducted a workshop with the students about their rights. These rights-based workshops were able to contribute to bridging the ignorance gap, a contributing factor to the high abuse cases regarding people living with disabilities.

We aimed to ensure that our students were well aware of their rights or at least had an idea about them. Awareness was intended to work as their protection tool and for community members living with disabilities as well. Knowledge is power, a saying we agree with. For years, PWDs have been ignored as important or impactful community members leading to neglect. This neglect brought a target on the backs of PWDs because they didn’t have the community to defend them. Informing and reminding PWDs of their rights was therefore an important aspect of this project.

Under the same umbrella, we organized inspirational talks led by Dr Kristina Zaccaria who centred on the behavioural health issues of children living with disabilities and how the students can go about them.

Dr Christina (second right) with Victo Nalule (centre) at Kampala School of the Physically Handicapped Mengo during inspirational talks

We held sessions on mental health with the students to create a platform for them to express themselves in safe spaces. We also organized meetings with parents on PWD children handling without affecting their confidence and overall mental health. While providing guided referrals to community livelihood programs their children can be involved in to keep them moving and equip them with business skills.

Tunaweza also organized end-of-term conferences which were used as a platform to empower the students and let them know that the futures they wanted were possible as long as they did the work. This section of the project to empower students, and bring back hope for their hopes and dreams despite the COVID-19 chaos at that time. It was to make them focus on their goals despite the challenges life would throw at them.

Pupils of Uganda School for the Deaf in Ntinda pose for a photo