Australia-based Stuart Kasule returns home to drive suicide prevention

The campaign dubbed “Hope for Life Uganda" is being rolled out by Rotary International in partnership with Omuntu Wawansi Organisation.

It is the brainchild of Australia-based-Uganda Stuart Raymond Kasule; a 29-year-old mental health champion.

Having lost a family member to suicide and himself coming very close to taking his own life, Kasule is now an acclaimed Mental Health Advocate in Australia, working as a suicide prevention trainer.

At the time, about seven years ago, Kasule found himself entrapped in financial struggles as a foreign student thousands of miles from home, which drove him to suicide ideation.

Today, having completed his studies armed himself with vast knowledge on mental health, and undertaken training in suicide prevention, he is working toward advancing suicide prevention measures back in his home country.

The “Hope For Life" a 3-year project he initiated, entails among others, securing resources to provide training to different stakeholders such as the media, on how to deal with mental health.

Kasule has already secured support from LivingWorks Australia, an international organization he works with, which will facilitate the training and provide its training models for use in Uganda.

“I have already engaged with the CEO of LivingWorks and they are happy to come for the first time in Africa and support us with their suicide prevention models,” he said.

Also as part of the campaign, there will be a run later next year through which mental health and suicide prevention awareness will be disseminated to different stakeholders and the wider population.

In recent days, following his return to Uganda, Kasule has had engagement meetings with officials from the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC), whom he hopes will provide a framework for the media training on mental health.

Back in April, Kasule held discussions with the Minister for Primary Healthcare Hon Margaret Muhanga, who also committed to support the Hope for Life campaign.

Uganda, like many other developing countries, has a high concentration of mental, neurological and substance use disorders

A Ministry of Health report which came out in May this year indicated that up to 14 million Ugandans suffer from a form of mental disorder.

Uganda is ranked among the top six countries in Africa in rates of depressive disorders.

Andrew Kyamagero, the head of Omuntu Wa Wansi Organization said he decided to partner with Kasule after realizing the gravity of the mental health challenges, especially amongst men in Uganda.

“I am a strong advocate of male engagement in the country and a family planning champion, and the more I went around the country, I realised that we are talking about reproductive health and family planning but men were not planning because they were battling mental challenges and they didn't know how to speak about them,” he said.

“So, I had to look for people who know much about this problem and that is how I landed on Stuart who introduced me to his models.

“We talked partnerships but the problem was that they couldn’t introduce the modals in Uganda because we don't have policies and strategies where they can plug,” he added.

Kyamagero wants to see among others, the decriminalization of suicide in Uganda which he believes is the first step in bringing mental health victims to the forefront to speak out.