KENYA: Missio Aachen Initiates Awareness on Mental Health Among Pastoral Agents in Africa
A section of the Conference Participants
Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, a psychologist from the Archdiocese of Abuja, Nigeria, likens psycho-spiritual counsellor to a sponge or a cotton material used to wipe away fluids from a surface. A sponge or a cotton material is a good absorbent, but there is usually a need to squeeze out the fluid absorbed in order for the material to continue working effectively.
Counselling functions in a similar manner in that as counsellors listens to the problems of a person and gives advice, they become affected either emotionally or psychologically and therefore the need to let it out.
Rt. Rev. Augustine Shao, C.S.Sp. Bishop of Zanzibar Diocese once expressed the desire by his priests to want to leave the island where Catholics are a mere minority among dominant Muslims. The year 2012-2013 the Catholic Church on the island of Zanzibar experienced serious animosities, which included a priest being shot and seriously injured on 25th December 2012; another priest being shot and killed on 17th February 2013; two British teenage girls who were teaching at a nursery school linked to the Catholic church were attacked with acid on 8th August 2013; while on 13th September 2013 another priest was attacked by acid as he walked out from a cyber cafe within Stone Town.
At the height of all these, priests wanted the Bishop of Zanzibar to organize some kind of an exchange program where they could leave the Island and go somewhere to recuperate. This illustrates the reality of trauma experienced among the clergy and religious working in African societies.
It was against such backdrop that the pastoral arm of Missio Aachen felt the need to do something to help their partners in Africa to cope with psychological and emotional problems and hardship. According to Dr. Matthias Vogt from the Department of International Relations at Missio Aachen, more stories of partners in the pastoral field especially bishops, priests, Religious men and women, as well as other pastoral agents, expressed stress experienced in their line of duties and therefore needed help.
“We found a very strong partner at that time in Fr. George Ehusani from Nigeria who with a couple of friends and supporters started the Psycho-Spiritual Institute in Nairobi-Kenya and we thought of widening our scope and look at different approaches. For instance, the approach of Psycho-Spiritual Institute at Marist International College in Nairobi, the approach of Catholic University of Eastern Africa-CUEA department of Psychology, as well as a more community based approach of Embulbul Centre for Education and Counselling in Ngong Diocese in Kenya,” Dr. Vogt explained.
Missio, through an independent consultant in the person of Karola Block, conducted an evaluation of all the institutions and organizations where they are either sponsoring a program or students. From the evaluation, the need to create awareness on mental health among Church personnel especially decision makers such as Bishops, Religious Superiors as well as lay leaders has emerged.
According to Rev. Fr. George Maina the Administration Secretary and lecturer at Psyche-Spiritual Institute at Marist International College in Nairobi, the Church personnel are not spared from mental health problems and more often than not nobody cares to think that priests and Religious men and women are also affected by the problems that people are facing in the communities.
“When it comes to mental health problems, the society is already in it: the priests, the Sisters, and other pastoral agents are in it as well, yet mental health has not been given good attention. It is therefore important to ask the question, “Does Church leadership understand that pastoral agents too suffer as they attend to the community members in need?” asked Fr. Maina.
Leading Participants of the Workshop in
Eucharistic Celebrations
As an intervention, Missio, in Collaboration with Psycho-Spiritual Institute, CUEA, Tangaza University College, Association of Sisterhood of Kenya (AOSK), and Embulbul Education & Counselling Centre organized a two-days regional conference on Psychological and Psycho-Spiritual Counselling in the Church Context for the Anglophone speaking Africa which was held in Nairobi between 22nd and 23rd October.
According to Fr. Maina, the objectives included to inform and sensitize participants on the needs, the approaches and the already existing possibilities for psychological and psycho-spiritual counselling in the Church context; to exchange ideas about the needs of persons working in the Church context and the relevance of existing approaches; and finally, to create a network of institutional stakeholders and persons working in this domain thus so as to create support for those in need in the Church context.
AMECEA Chairman Rt. Rev. Charles Kasonde, Bishop of Solwezi Zambia who was among the participants has lauded Missio for the initiative, terming it a brilliant idea of recognizing the need for psychological and spiritual counselling among pastoral workers who are traumatised due to various reasons ranging from political and dictatorial tendencies of some African leaders to poor distribution of resources and diseases.
“I believe that AMECEA region being the host of this important conference, our representation can disseminate the outcome of this conference. it is a very important conference in the life of the Church,” Bishop Kasonde indicated.
Also in attendance was AMECEA Vice Chairman Most Rev. Thomas Msusa, Archbishop of Blantyre, Malawi and Chairman of AMECEA Pastoral Department Most Rev. Ignatius Chama, Archbishop of Kasama, Zambia.
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By Pamela Adinda, AMECEA Online News
