Jovia, Joles and learning to live again
Understanding mental health and psychosocial support through the lens of armed conflict survivors in Kasese District, Western Uganda
Kasese:- The newly built two-bedroom brick house stands firm, with the sun rays glistening off a shiny iron roof. It is Jovia and Joles Duduma’s home in Nabugando II Village in Mpondwe Lhubiriha Town Council, Kasese District, in western Uganda. Next to the house is a freshly cemented grave where their father is buried. Besides it, a heaped mound of brown earth with a foot-long wooden cross over it, marks the grave of their mother. Right behind it, another pile of fresh-looking earth reminds the family where their late grandmother lies. All three were killed during an armed rebel attack in Kasese District in June 2023.
“Daddy never got to sleep in his new house, so we buried him next to it,” 23-year-old Joles says haltingly, as 31-year-old Jovia stares at the ground.
On June 16, 2023, an armed group attacked Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School killing 38 children and five adults and affecting over 115,000 people in 12 sub counties/ town councils. In the aftermath, over 4,500 people were displaced, entire communities abandoned their homes, businesses and took their children out of school, with physical and emotional wounds continuing to haunt children, young people, women, and men.
In collaboration with the Kasese District Local Government, UNICEF is supporting communities to recover and rebuild. Using a database of health and para-social workers (PSWs) trained by Butabika Mental Health Referral Hospital with UNICEF support, the district mobilized teams to provide specialized mental health support services to the survivors and bereaved families across the 12 affected sub-counties.
“Because parasocial workers live within the community, they are not only the first but also fast respondents in emergency cases and ensure sustained response until community members get back on their feet,” says Susan Birungi Nyakoojo, the Programme Officer - Emergency at UNICEF Mbarara Zonal Office.
The morning after the rebel attack, the PSWs accompanied by psychiatric nurses made multiple visits to affected homes and conducted community dialogues to offer psychosocial support, working with the district probation and social welfare and security teams.
The work of the PSWs and psychiatric nurses is not easy. Charles Bukenya, a psychiatric nurse at Bwera Hospital in Mpondwe Lhubiriha Town Council reports that they were greeted with loud wails, listless looks and palpable fear whenever they visited most homesteads. Over weeks of psychosocial support, with recognition of a long road still ahead, it is heartening to note that progress has been made.
“We keep reminding them that the tragedy should not mark the end of their existence,” the psychiatric nurse notes, speaking of the Duduma household. “They used to cry a lot but can now smile and freely chat about different aspects of life.” From five visits a week, the team now makes only two visits weekly.
Jovia notes that she is no longer terrified of the dark and can even sit outside their house till 11 p.m., whereas previously, she would not get out of the house past 5 p.m.
“I have become stronger,” she says, adding, “I even counsel my younger siblings.”
Staring at a photo of their deceased parents, Joles retells that their father had promised to send him to nursing school upon completing the house. After a pause, he adds that after weeks of counsel, he started making bricks to earn some money that is now helping him and his siblings. With government support, the siblings have roofed the new house and are currently living in it.
“We miss our parents, “Joles notes, sadness permeating his words, “but life has to go on.”
As the psychiatric nurse and parasocial worker complete their visit, Joles and Jovia walk them to the road. They say many words in their local dialect Lukhonzo, as they clasp the hands of their visitors, but some ring out:
Mwasingya kutsibu – Thank you very much.
Mwasingya eribya imunimutughumuzikania - Thank you for counselling us.
Through UNICEF support to the local government in Kasese, a total of 8,562 children and 8,601 adults have been reached with community-based psychosocial support while 192 survivors and bereaved parents have been provided with specialised MHPSS services.
