In July 2020 ZAMHS was awarded a grant of £3,064 funded by Welsh Government’s Wales Africa Grant scheme, administered by WCVA
The funding will provide a three day training course in Unguja (main Island) and Pemba (second biggest island) for 20 mental health care professionals to be able to join the local Covid-19 district management teams to be able to provide psychological support to people in Zanzibar suffering from mental health problems and Covid-19, and to provide health education as part of the local Covid-19 teams to prevent the spread of the virus.
Having the trained staff in each local team allows support and education to be provided locally to minimise mixing of people from different areas, encourage and educate people to not spread the virus, and provide psychological support for people who are suffering psychologically as a result of the virus
Our partner in Zanzibar Mr Suleiman is clear this is the most urgent need right now:
‘We are going to train the staff as you see from the budget, a session of three days at two zones(Unguja and Pemba).
We have a District Covid 19 team currently, the team has 9 staff, but the problem is there is no psychosocial service personnel. Covid 19 is a public problem. There are people who are being affected physically but too there are in suffering PSYCHOLOGICALLY and are not getting any support. It is an urgent task because we have a problem currently, and we need a solution to better provide a complete services.
We have been discussing the management of Covid 19 with our partners in Zanzibar since the outbreak, and funded some equipment for them.
