ZIKUKA (ZImba obugumu, KUuma obulamu, Kasawo Akalungi) (“Build Resilience, Protect Health, and Strengthen Well-being”): co-designing a community-based family intervention for vulnerable adolescents in Uganda

Summary

Adolescents in rural Uganda face high rates of depression and anxiety, worsened by poverty, trauma, and gender-based violence. Childhood abuse affects most, contributing to school dropouts and limiting opportunities. School-based mental health programs fail to address severe cases and exclude out-of-school adolescents, while health services are overburdened. This project partners with locally embedded, culturally rooted lay health workers to co-create a trauma-informed, culturally safe, family-based intervention addressing mental health, education, and poverty. Using participatory design, it includes parent education, life skills, and community activities. Evaluation with 64 families assesses feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness. This scalable model aligns with SDGs 3, 4, 5, and 10, and might offer a sustainable solution to improve the mental health and well-being of young people in underserved areas.

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