Global Volunteers partners with mental health professionals in Tanzania to inspire local leaders and families of the Ukwega Ward to visualize optimal community mental wellness and to collaborate on practical strategies to integrate mental health into the primary care system. A foundational strategy is to build sustainable resources to operationalize this vision.
The Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP) in Tanzania introduced mental wellness as a key component of holistic child and family health in 2018. Working together, Ukwega Ward community leaders, RCP staff and short-term volunteers have built an educational foundation for behavioral and physical wellbeing practices. Two new Global Volunteers projects aim to further address the […]
In 2023, Global Volunteers responded to the critical alcohol abuse problem in the Ukwega Ward by introducing the international addiction recovery program Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) through village meetings. AA was selected because its proven “12-Step” program is familiar to a wide range of volunteers, is accepted in Tanzania, and is founded on non-clinical interventions; extending […]
The Reaching Childrens Potential Program (RCP) Mental Wellness Initiative was formally launched in 2021 after three years of investigation and research into the community’s mental health needs and openness to co-creating treatments and interventions with Global Volunteers. The major goal is to optimize mental wellness in the Ukwega Ward by educating leaders and families on […]
The 2024 work plan for the RCP Mental Wellness Initiative in the Ukwega Ward of Tanzania leans heavily on volunteers’ personal and professional experience. Despite cultural, communication and geographical differences between volunteers and local people, we know we all struggle, yearn, worry, dream and cope in reassuringly similar ways. When volunteers candidly share how they […]
Volunteering is a powerful and fulfilling way to impact the world, and the Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP) in Tanzania offers a unique and transformative setting for contributing to meaningful change. Tanzania Mental Wellness Education Manager Regina Mhagama invites students, professionals and those with lived experience in mental wellness to assist her as a two- […]
Dr. Hannah Nguyen returned from Tanzania driven to inspire colleagues to contribute their skills to rural villagers through Global Volunteers’ Reaching Children’s Potential (RCP) Program. Some of the following is excerpted from her story in the professional newsletter of the Southern California Child Adolescent Psychiatry Association. Read on to learn how you can advance the […]
Pregnant and post-partum women along with fathers who are vulnerable to mental stress because of family conflict, physical illness or disability, food or economic insecurity, and many other threats are at the center of Global Volunteers’ Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP) Mental Wellness Initiative. A 2023 needs assessment identifies priority areas for intervention, treatment and […]
Since 2018, Global Volunteers staff and volunteers have assisted local people in the five villages of the Ukwega Ward of Tanzania in visualizing a model of optimal, community-wide mental wellness to integrate into the primary care system. Beginning in January 2023, a mental wellness assessment will help identify the primary conditions that block that vision. […]
Worldwide, mental illness touches the lives of nearly everyone – often through family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers or community institutions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 13 percent of the world’s population is affected by mental health and substance use disorders. In Tanzania, although very few prevalence studies of mental disorders have been done […]
On the first service program back to Tanzania following the pandemic lockdown, the Reaching Children’s Potential Program (RCP) launched a mental wellness initiative aiming to extend care, education and support through workshops, home visits, group meetings and clinical examinations and assessments. With broad acceptance and endorsement by community and church leaders throughout the Ukwega Ward, […]