News from StrongMinds
In December, the entire StrongMinds team was deeply saddened when we lost a dear friend and colleague. Medi Ssengooba, who served as a longstanding StrongMinds Uganda Board member and eventually Chair, passed away unexpectedly after a brief illness on December 14th. Medi lived a remarkable life. He suffered from polio as a child and spent…
HARVESTING HAPPINESS Afiya, 16, shares her story of her mother, Adellah’s recovery from the ‘Black Night’ of depression I remember that bright morning, waking up and being so excited about going to school. I was looking forward to reading my poem out loud in front of the whole class. Miss Dembe had praised my use…
To mark World Mental Health Day (10th October), StrongMinds is launching an awareness campaign called “30 Days of Good Mental Health” on popular Ugandan radio stations Capital FM and Beat FM. The media partnership will see important mental health tips and messages broadcast up to five times a day, beginning on World Mental Health Day…
Ugandan women suffer from unipolar depression at twice the rate of men. StrongMinds trains mental health facilitators who lead peer-group therapy sessions for Ugandan women, and aims to reach two million women by 2025. Read on for this recent article published in Stanford Social Innovation Review. Fall_2018_Strength_in_Numbers (2)
We are thrilled to officially welcome Frank Harle to the StrongMinds team as he now takes up the reins to lead StrongMinds’ strategic expansion into a second country in 2019. For the past six-months he has been working as a consultant with our team in Uganda providing technical support to StrongMinds Uganda on fundraising and…
Imani McGee-Stafford, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) player for the Atlanta Dream and a mental health advocate, joined StrongMinds in honoring of Mental Health Awareness Month in May 2018. Imani promoted the work of StrongMinds on social media to help raise awareness of the organization and the importance of mental health. Scroll down to view the…
Dr. Myrna Weissman, a member of the StrongMinds Advisory Board, recently released an updated and expanded edition of her book, The Guide to Interpersonal Psychotherapy. StrongMinds’ work was founded on a randomized control trial of Group Interpersonal Psychotherapy that took place in Uganda in 2002, which was conducted by Paul Bolton et al. Dr. Weissman adapted…
Every Monday afternoon for the past six weeks, a group of 12 women have met on a neighbor’s porch. The StrongMinds Therapy Group, which selected the name “Together We Can,” will meet for a total of 12 weeks to overcome their depression together with guidance from Susan, their StrongMinds Mental Health Facilitator. Susan begins each session by going…
Depression is the leading cause of disability globally. More than 25% African women are suffering from depression and 85% have no access to mental health treatment. StrongMinds is the only organization focused on scaling a solution to the depression epidemic in Africa through its proven group talk therapy programs. Depression affects every aspect of a woman’s…
Solve is Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) initiative to bring together problem-solvers to tackle the world’s most pressing problems through open innovation and partnership. Over 950 applications were submitted and 68 were chosen as finalists to pitch their solution to a panel of expert judges in New York City on Sunday, September 17. Sean Mayberry,…