Campaign destination

StrongMinds provides free personal and group therapy to low-income women suffering from depression in Uganda and Zambia. This therapy is greatly needed due to a severe lack of mental health services in these regions. Depression is the most prevalent mental illness in the world. According to the Centre for Disease Control, 350 million people worldwide suffer from depression. The World Bank considers it “the greatest thief of productive economic life,” with an annual global cost of $2.5 trillion. Africa is no exception with about 100 million people suffering from the disease. Depression is the number one cause of disability in African women. Women are also twice as likely to be depressed compared to men in Africa. To make matters worse, there is a severe lack of investment in mental health care in these regions. 85% of people with depression on the African continent – including 66 million women – have no access to effective treatment. Depression leaves more people disabled in Africa than cancer, heart disease or HIV/AIDS. It can affect someone’s life for months, years or even decades. An African woman with depression endures a significantly higher amount of suffering compared to her healthy peers; she is less productive, earns a lower income and is more likely to have poor physical health. If she is a mother, the negative impacts of her depression extend to her whole family. StrongMinds provides a solution by scaling up a cost-effective depression treatment programme that serves tens of thousands of people each year. The organisation provides free personal and group therapy to low-income women in Uganda and Zambia so that they can overcome depression and restore their mental wellbeing. This gives women the chance to lead healthy, productive and fulfilling lives – an opportunity all humans should have. StrongMinds is the only organisation that treats depression on a large scale in Africa.