£8,000 to help train 50 health care workers in Zanzibar

Ruth (left) and friend, Karen (middle), completed the Weswimrun challenge, with support of co-founder Mike (right). 

A charity, dedicated to supporting mental health services in Zanzibar, has received £8,000 in funding, to help with the training of mental health professionals on the island.

Zanzibar Mental Health Shamba (ZAMHS) was set up in 2014 by mental health nurses in the UK, to support mental health services in the country.

ZAMHS has been granted £8,000 from the Wales Council for Voluntary Action’s Wales and Africa Small Grants Scheme.

This funding will help ZAMHS train 50 health care workers on the Zanzibar islands of Unguja and Pemba, to deliver essential mental health care services, including prevention and protection of Covid-19, to individuals with mental illness in the community.

Ruth Jennison, a mental health nurse in Bronglais and co-founder of ZAMHS alongisde Mike Greenwood, said: “This project is now well under way and Heath care workers around the islands are being trained in how to cope with the MH consequences of Covid-19 as well as other mental health issues. It’s going so well. Imagine having to take a boat and wade through the sea to get to a health care centre?

“It’s so much harder there but they are determined.”

Additionally, Ruth and friend, Karen Simmonds Harding, took part in a Weswimrun event in Talyllyn lake, on Saturday, 12 June, and managed to raise £260 to “help fund Therapeutic activities for patients in Kidongo Chekundu hospital/Community in Zanzibar Tanzania”.

“They always struggle but in these awful times they have to cope without the things we take for granted, such as the NHS. Covid-19 vaccinations have yet to reach there.

“ZAMHS regularly support them sending money for medicines and fuel for the psychiatric community team to get around the island to see patients.”

\Source: https://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/