Mental Health & Trauma Support
Scope of Work
Mental health is an important part of overall health and wellbeing, yet many women and girls face emotional and psychological challenges without having access to the support they need. In communities across Northern Uganda, people may experience stress, grief, trauma, anxiety, depression, family and social pressures, or other challenges that affect their wellbeing and their ability to participate fully in everyday life.
At AWIHF, we work to make mental-health and psychosocial support more accessible, compassionate, and community-rooted. Our Mental Health & Trauma Support programme creates safe spaces where women and girls can talk openly, receive practical support, build coping skills, and connect with appropriate care when additional support is needed.
Our work includes community-based peer support, trauma-informed approaches, psychosocial support, healing and discussion spaces, and referral pathways for people who may require more specialized care. We also work to reduce the stigma that can prevent people from seeking help and to strengthen the ability of communities and local health actors to respond to mental-health needs.
While our work recognizes the lasting effects of conflict and other traumatic experiences in Northern Uganda, our approach is broader. We support women and girls facing a range of mental-health and psychosocial challenges and work with communities to promote understanding, early support, dignity, and pathways to appropriate care.
Core Objective
To improve access to compassionate, community-based mental-health and psychosocial support for women and girls, while creating safe spaces for healing, strengthening coping skills, reducing stigma, and connecting people to appropriate care when additional support is needed.
Target & Coverage
Women, adolescent girls, young mothers, and community members across Northern Uganda experiencing emotional challenges, psychological distress, trauma, social pressures, or barriers to accessing appropriate mental-health care.
Core Activities & Interventions
- Facilitating community-level peer support and trauma-healing discussion circles in Gulu and surrounding sub-counties.
- Providing accessible group-based and individual psychosocial support sessions guided by trained facilitators.
- Establishing safe, trusted community referral pathways to connect individuals with specialized care when needed.
- Conducting community anti-stigma workshops to normalize conversations around mental health and encourage early help-seeking.
- Integrating trauma-informed principles into local health centers, schools, and community support groups.
Success Indicators
Reduced mental-health stigma across target communities, enabling women and girls to speak openly and seek care with dignity.
Structured, trusted referral pathways active for women and girls requiring specialized clinical or psychosocial support.
Resilient networks of grassroots healing circles and peer support groups operating in local communities.
Hundreds of women, young mothers, and girls equipped with practical coping strategies, psychosocial support, and community care.
Programme in Practice
Field documentation and photographic records from our Mental Health & Trauma Support community operations and outreach activities across Northern Uganda.
