Self Help Recovery Groups

Project Report | Jan 28, 2022
New hope and a place to belong

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Flyer for the Self Help Groups Uganda

“These groups have brought a big change into my life. I have now seen different people in the same condition like me or even worse than me, shared our experiences, history and learnt about varying ideas of recovery from substance and drug use. Before I started coming to the group, I had no hopes of leaving drugs but when we sit together and get different ideas on stopping drugs and substance use I am always hopeful that it is possible. I now feel like I have a family I belong to, that I can share my past experiences and I’m heard. I was idle, doing nothing, hopeless. Now, I know the importance of working/making myself busy as it is important in my recovery journey. Now I support my family with household activities, I put on clean clothes and feel respected at home than before” - a member from Mataala Self Help group

This story shows the great impact of Self Help Groups. Self Help Groups do not only impact invidivuals, but also their families and communities. Self Help groups provide a platform where members can exchange their thoughts, values and struggles without being judged. Members gain new courage and better their self-esteem in realizing, that other people struggle with the same things. As quoted above, they gain new insights and ideas how to deal with their struggles. This is the first step of behavior change. Once they realize that they can change, and that they are still a valuable member of society, they gain courage to actually change their behaviour. And the greatest thing is that they don't only change their own lives, but also the lives of the other group members. The members start to help each other out and build networks.

“We sit together every week and we share about different things concerning our lives and experiences on drugs and substance use. Before joining this group, whenever I got some money, I was only buying alcohol for myself and friends.I couldn’t think of any business, I didn’t know how to deal with customers and how to connect to the market. But it’s during these group meetings that I got different ideas. I followed that and now I can buy green vegetables from Amber Court Market and later on sell on retail from my stall at home. This is a social profit to me. I have now also reduced the consumption and am hopeful to stop. We help each other to solve our problems” - a member from Kyekide Self Help Group.

If you want to support the Self-Help groups and help vulnerable people to get back on track, you can donate to this project. We warmly welcome every donation!

Community awareness in Uganda

Self Help Group in Butiki

Permalink

Sep 30, 2021
"We will move together in good or bad times"

By Bianca | Project Assistant

Self Help Group in Butiki-Mataala

Looking back on the first half of 2021, we see how much the Self Help groups in Uganda have developed and flourished. Today, there are two different Self Help Groups which meet every week in Butiki-Mataala and in Kyekiide. The Self Help Groups have enabled their members to build up their self-confidence and increase their self-esteem. This progress is shown by the way in which members learned to talk openly and now boldly share their stories during the group sessions. After participating in the Self Help groups for over 6 months, the participants were interviewed about their experience. They all confirmed that their confidence has grown and that they have acquired new skills. One of the participants in Butiiki-Mataala said that each member of the group feels responsible for one and another. “We will move together in good or bad times”. If one person can’t cope with their addiction, they are carried by the others. In that way, the rhythm of collective movement remains unbroken.

Since the well-being of individuals is also dependent on it’s society, it is important that the Blue Cross raises community awareness. Especially in Uganda, where people often have negative attitudes towards people suffering from drug and alcohol addictions, community awareness is more important than ever. Within the last six months, Blue Cross Uganda has distributed nearly 900 leaflets containing information about the effects of substance abuse and the importance of Self Help groups.

We are convinced that the community plays a really important role in helping people who struggle with addictions and will therefore raise community activities. If you want to support us in doing so, you are welcomed to donate to our project. Thank you so much for helping change the world for better!

Self Help group in Kyekidde

Permalink

May 12, 2021
Why we need Self Help Groups in Africa?

By Anne Babb | General Secretary

On-line facilitator training

Why we need to create self help groups?

There is limited access to any support or treatment for people who suffer from alcohol addiction in many places in Africa. To make up for that, Self-Help groups, also known as support or mutual help groups, have become an integral part of treating dependence issues and have proven to be an invaluable resource for recovery and empowerment. Indeed, the World Health Organization, with the vision of achieving “universal health coverage” (UHC)[1], has developed several self-help tools, for example to support the recovery from mental disease[1] or substance addiction[2]. These self-help strategies (individual tool, collective group) follow the same principle: offer a series of self-reflective exercises that encourage an understanding of self and propose a way towards recovery.

Self-Help within Blue Cross

The concept of self-help groups are already being implemented by some Blue Cross organisations in Europe and in Latin America. Using this existing experience IBC is supporting the start of first groups in Africa. We are starting in Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Kenya and Chad during 2021 and we have invited all BC countries to take part in our English and French training.

Who participates?

Blue Cross organisations who want to want to implement self help groups for people suffering from addiction. Self-help groups are composed from four to twenty substance dependent people. These groups are facilitated by Blue Cross trained laypersons, volunteers and/or former addicts and operate on an informal, non-profit basis, making it a cost-effective and sustainable method of providing services to those affected by addiction.

What?

IBC member organizations identify facilitators who participate in the on-line training sessions provided by IBC staff. The training is provided monthly with other additional support and coaching as necessary. Once trained the facilitators are working with their Self-Help groups.

These groups meet on a regular basis with the mutual goal of dealing with and working towards overcoming addiction. Every group is autonomous and organizes itself. The members talk about their experiences and listen to each other. Mutual respect, esteem and confidentiality are important to them.

Thank you for your support for this life changing work. Despite the covid restrictions small groups have been able to meet at local communities and we look forward to updating you with some examples from the field in our next report.

[1] idem

[2] World Health Organization, Self-help strategies for cutting down or stopping substance use (ASSIST) (2010)

[1] World Health Organization’s QualityRights, Person-centred recovery planning for mental health and well-being self-help tool (2019), p10

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.