Mhango
Humanitarian organisation Lifeline Malawi has provided mental health support to Cyclone Freddy survivors at Bangwe Youth Centre camp in Blantyre to help them deal with mental issues.
The organisation was on Monday at Bangwe Youth Centre camp in Blantyre where mental health specialist engaged over 30 flood survivors on how to deal with mental health issues.
Speaking to journalists after the training, Henderson Mhango who is Lifeline Malawi National Deputy Director, said the arrangement is based on the devastation that cyclone Freddy caused on people in Malawi’s southern region.
Mhango said he is convinced that the loss of lives and property as a result of the natural disaster, may cause anxiety and depression.
The Deputy Director is of the view that these suicide prevention trainings may lessen the burden amongst flood survivors and at the same time giving hope to the victims that they can start over and make it again in life.
“Lifeline Malawi has been doing some interventions on dealing with mental health so we thought it wise to engage people who are in camps because we are very sure that this is the time when they need psychosocial counselling.
“With the effects of Cyclone Freddy people lost loved ones, property and other valuable. So, being at a camp can make one to have mental disorders which may at the end prompt a victim to resort into committing suicide,” said Mhango.
He then encouraged the participants to impart what they have gotten from the training to their fellow victims at the camp so that the message should reach more survivors, thereby preventing suicide deaths.
Mhango further mentioned that they have also linked the flood survivors to the district social welfare office and mental health specialists from whom they can seek psychosocial support.
One of the survivors Cecilia Zimba who is staying at the camp with her five children, commended Lifeline Malawi for organising the training saying the devastation left her hopeless and depressed.
Zimba said the floods which washed away her rented house and all her belongings, put her in a situation where she could at some stage resort to committing suicide.
“After paying for the house in which I was staying, the house got washed away together with all my belongings. I was really stressed and depressed because I had no hope of recovering. Today’s training by Lifeline has been so crucial, it has encouraged me on how to start over again,” said Zimba.
Meanwhile, the organisation says it will conduct such suicide prevention trainings in five other camps so as to reach out to more cyclone Freddy survivors on the agenda.
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