Welcome on our page for international activities!
The German NGO On The Move e.V. in collaboration with its local partners has been working on mental health activities in Ghana and Kenya since 2015 and 2016, respectively. Initially, our educational activities- Brain Awareness and discussion fora in schools, churches and the communities have helped us to understand and influence positively the public perception of mental illness/stigma and the specific needs of the affected persons. In consecutive years, we piloted the vocational component of mental health rehabilitation. As of early 2018, we compounded all these activities into our Centers for Mental Health in Aflao and Kisumu called Home of Brains. Since we opened the centers, we have helped mentally challenged patients as well as community members at risk for mental illness with vocational rehabilitation, most of them benefited from both the vocational skills training and the allowance of a seed funding at the end of their training, which enabled them to start their own business activities.
On The Move e.V. also seeks to support its local partners in building up mental health activities as well as civil society engagement related to mental health in Aflao and Kisumu. These activities include the establishment of a network of community members interested in mental health, e.g., medical staff, religious/traditional/spiritual leaders, or rehabilitated patients and their caregivers. This network ensures a holistic view on mental health and also engages in research activities.
If you want to learn more about our projects, please click on one of the following boxes:
TEDXTalk in Dresden
The brain is what makes you YOU!
1.5 kg of tissue, 10 billion neurons, 100’s of trillions of connections – that is the organ in your body that makes you YOU: the brain. Just as any other organ, it is susceptible to disease; however, patients with mental illness are stigmatized. This talk not only introduces a concept of how we can destigmatize patients with psychiatric conditions by educating society about the brain but also illustrates of how this approach is put into practice in different countries around the world. Rick Wolthusen is a final year medical student at Technical University Dresden. He traveled to sub-Saharan Africa for clinical internships several times and founded the German NGO On The Move e.V. in 2013. The NGO focuses on volunteer programs, fundraising campaigns for medical institutions and schools, and so-called Brain Awareness activities in African countries and Germany. Brain Awareness aims to decrease the stigma of mental illness by educating the society about the brain, in keeping it with the motto “The brain is what makes you YOU”.
Here you can access the complete TEDxTalk "The Brain is what makes you YOU!" from the NGO's founder and co-director Rick Wolthusen - enjoy!
