In order to fight againt drug abuse, the African Humanitarian Action (AHA) of Uganda partnered with East Africa Medical Center. On Friday, 31st March, 2023 organized a workshop with the purpose to discuss the causes of drug abuse and its impact on mental health among the Habesha people living in Uganda.
The conference was held at the main offices of East Africa Medical Center located at South Point Mall in Kabalagala along Ggaba Road.
Led by the General Manager of East Africa Medical Center, Mr. Abiselom Bahta, the attendees were from; the Ethiopian Catholic and Orthodox churches, representatives of certain refugee agencies and other Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).
Why Drug Abuse in the Habesha Community?
According to Mr. Andrew Isabirye, the team leader at AHA, based on their research data, they have found out that there is too much abuse of drugs and other substances. Thus, there is need to tailor possible solutions that would help eradicate or at least mitigate the problem.
“Our main target of coming to this facility here, we wanted to talk about; abusing of drugs and substances. We have assessed our data properly and realized there is too much abuse of drugs and substance like marijuana that eventually result into problems like mental health breakdown, domestic violence and even death.” – Mr. Isabirye told the attendees.
AHA is a major implementing partner in health, they normally follow up data in most of the health facilities that these people are visiting and look at the problems that each group is facing.
Mrs. Racheal R. Nanyoro, a qualified nurse working as a Public Health Officer at AHA stated that they have realized it is not easy to mobilize people from the Eritrean and Ethiopian community. Therefore, this has somehow made their work very hard for service delivery in this community, but have realized that it is easy to reach these people through their religious leaders.
“Like we may or may not know, Eritreans and Ethiopians, it is not easy to mobilize you people. And we have been reliably informed by some of your community leaders that for us to get a good number of Ethiopians and Eritreans, we need to work with religious leaders,” – Mrs. Nanyoro stated.
Nickson Mutaasa working as a mental health expert also stated that their role is to ensure that when refugees go for medical care in any government facility, they are not treated with any sorts of discrimination and be able to access the services in a timely manner like any other citizen. Mutaasa however clarified to the attendees that AHA does not have a hospital of its own that it runs, but instead performs the liaison.
“AHA is an organization that has the mandate to improve access to healthcare for the urban refugees, specifically those in Kampala who are now more 130,00 that we are working with coming from different countries.
Our role is to is make sure that when you go to a hospital, especially a government facility, you are not treated with discrimination and be able to access the services there in a timely manner and be treated in a way that other patients are treated.
We have hospital aids in most of government facilities that help on the problem of language barrier and pass on information more efficiently,” Mr. Mutaasa clarified.
On the other hand, all the Habesha representatives seconded stress as the major cause of the problem. However, they mentioned other factors, including; peer group influence, trauma of past experiences, lack of hope for a better future among others. Thus, called for joint force to ensure that the problem and its effects are eradicated from the community.
“The main cause of drug abuse is stress! The young generation are all under stress because they have encountered so many issues back at home and so decided to come here, but when they reached, they found very difficult and unexpected situation. Because they need accommodation, to eat and other basic needs and when they cannot get them, the fall under stress,” Mr. Abraham Keleta – Public Health Expert.
“There is this problem because of stress and we agree with that, but we do not see the solution? So we want the solution,” – Mr. Hagos Yemane, the Chairperson – Art Association of Eritrean Refugees in Uganda (AAERU) asked.
For better service delivery, it was concluded that the refugees should not shy away to identify themselves as refugees wherever they go since it will help to open doors for them in case of any opportunities available.