BACKGROUND of the Organisation:   Advocacy for Mental Health and Human Rights (AMHHR) is a rights based grassroots mental health advocacy charity registered in Sierra Leone, dedicated to improving the lives of young people and persons living with or at risk of mental illness and their families. 

We at AMHHR pursue our objectives through Partnership working with allied organisations and engagement of policy makers and ordinary citizens, in matters related to implementation of the national mental health policy document, social development programmes and human rights policies/treaties.  

AMHHR also knows that when the community understand that they have human rights which are protected by the law, this can give them and their advocates the confidence and power to voice their concerns and get the changes that are needed.  Driven by their experiences, we advocate, research and influence policy and practice.  We also provide advocacy support through well-trained and highly motivated individual’s expert knowledge to professionals, parents and carers and young people through our Community Engagement Forum (CEF). 

 We are as well committed to the central advocacy principles of confidentiality, best interests and empowerment through our online platform i.e. Facebook and whatsAp -resources. We provide support to train and actively engage on human rights advocacy, community outreach work and publications.

Problem: Currently, people with mental illness in Sierra Leone are believed to be evil, violent, lazy, stupid, and unable to marry or have children and unfit to vote. Mental illness is seen as either brought upon oneself as punishment for certain actions such as the breaking of taboos, or as being cast upon someone by spells and witchcraft.

In Sierra Leone, children and women with disabilities are one of the most marginalised and excluded groups, experiencing widespread violations of their rights. Discrimination and stigmatization arises not as a result of the intrinsic nature of children’s disability, but rather, as a consequence of lack of understanding and knowledge of its causes and implications, fear of difference, fear of contagion or contamination, or negative religious or cultural views of disability. It is further compounded by poverty, social isolation, humanitarian emergencies, lack of services and support, and a hostile and inaccessible environment.

AIM:  The aim of the   project is to raise awareness about mental health problems and also educate local communities on the importance of basic mental health care at community level. Our country went through a civil war that lasted for 11 years and in 2014 was hit by the Ebola crisis and is faced with socioeconomic factors impacting outcome of the people, limited number of active psychiatrists, few trained psychiatric nurses and a population of six and half million people. The country is in a weak position to deal with mental health needs due to lack of adequate resources and poor service provisions.   

We aim to step in the gap through our Advocacy campaign to help protect women and young people who might be at risk of harm, prevent a mental health illness from getting worse and help guide them towards the right support and reduce the stigma of mental health problems. 

AMHHR also seeks to expand opportunities for the poor and the most vulnerable through specific hands on projects, capacity development including training, exposure and financial support where necessary.

Youth focused:

AMHHR is focused in working in schools to promote a healthy schools campaign. We aware that schools contribute strongly to risk and resilience factors for mental health but children with disabilities enrolled in schools are often excluded from learning. Most often, curriculum has not been adapted to their needs or teachers do not have the capacity or time to make the needed adaptations, and/or they do not have access to assistive devices necessary for their learning needs.

AMHHR will support young people to work with local and national decision makers through our advocacy program to directly influence services and support for young people. 

AMHHR will work with young people to put a dent in the stigma surrounding mental health and help raise awareness of the vital importance of children and young people’s resilience and good mental health across the nation.

AMHHR will help the most vulnerable pupils achieve better than any of us could ever have imagined they would’. Our aim is to raise educational achievement from implementing 'quick wins' that can be implemented immediately, to helping to identify pupils who are at risk of not fulfilling their academic potential.  

 We aim to support young people build their resilience and empower them through practical approaches to do better than might be expected. We will offer ideas to help everyone in the school community play a part so that young people will have the ability to cope and maintain good mental wellbeing usually. This means that they will have the resilience to cope when times are tougher than usual.

AMHHR aims to help any school establish systems to build ‘resilience approaches’ that support disadvantaged pupils over time through a whole school approach in order to facilitate programs to benefit all pupils. The goal will be to increase academic resilience because children who are resilient will be able to cope better with problems, they will have better health and they will be happier and more fulfilled. They will also be less likely to develop emotional problems like depression or anxiety. 

 We will educate and up skill young people with coping strategies and provide access to early support when and where it is required.

We aim to raise the profile of mental well-being and break the stigma of mental health amongst young people, parents and communities. 

We seek to promote wellbeing and address the impact and prevalence of underlying issues and key risk factors such as child poverty, teenage pregnancy, poor parenting, Domestic violence, poor physical health, bullying, poor parental mental health, and unemployment and substance misuse/abuse. 

We will have Media Champions who will represent the campaign in the media - galvanising the voice of children and young people seeking change.

Women focused: 

Mental illness still remains a taboo, with women caught up in the many challenges of accessing mental health resources in Sierra Leone.

The Sierra Leonean women are also mostly subjected to cultural norms which mostly promote cruel and inhuman acts that affect their physical and social well-being and limits their participation in society.

We aim to focus our advocacy work on women’s mental health, especially targeting women in the rural areas, where there are significant threats to their mental health and a violation of their human rights including exposure to HIV/AIDS as well as other fundamental problems including emotional abuse, battering, marital rape, and murder. There is a strong relationship between domestic violence and mental health as most women who suffer from such abuse are often depressed, suffer from stress-related conditions, some become chemical dependent and abuse substances like alcohol, and in some cases, attempt or commit suicide. Coercive mental health policies infringe on human rights and the invasions of human rights harm mental health.

We aim to advocate against gender-based violence as it does and can contribute significantly to preventable morbidity and mortality for women across diverse cultures. Most women who are forcefully subjected to gender-based violence suffer from mental distress, anxiety and depression. Those who refuse or escape are ostracised, considered to be misfits and not allowed to be part of the local community women’s activities. This leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation by such women.

We also aim to advocate for services that would help women deal with the psycho-social and physiological difficulties of pregnancy and caring for babies as these make a woman more vulnerable to perinatal mental health problems, especially in adverse circumstances like those faced by most women in Sierra Leone, especially rural women and those living with scarce resources.

The promotion of mental health and well-being, and the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, are health priorities. We aim to launch a national manifesto for better mental health through our community interactive mental health workshop.

Advocacy for Mental Health and human Rights (AMHHR), aims to see the government of Sierra Leone support the application of social, economic, and cultural rights to mental health, particularly with respect for the rights of all citizens to access mental health services.