Film

It Takes a Village

TRIUMPH Uganda Addresses the Stigma of Mental Health

After experiencing a mental health crisis of her own, Robinah Alambuya founded TRIUMPH Uganda to help others with psychosocial disabilities in her community. She used her platform to share her story and build hope. Founded in 2008, TRIUMPH’s mission is to “contribute to the process of enhancing recovery, building resilience, and investing in social networks for inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities.” Alambuya talks about meeting Disability Justice Project fellow Esther Suubi for the first time and how Suubi blossomed within TRIUMPH’s peer-support program. *Video includes audio descriptions for blind and low-vision audiences.

Video opens with the Basoga Tribe from Uganda performing a cultural dance. They are wearing black T-shirts and long, orange scarves tied around their waists. Video cuts to TRIUMPH’s Uganda’s red and blue logo. Melancholic synth music starts to play.

“I needed a platform where I can use my story, my lived experience to build hope in other families who experienced mental health issues like what I’ve gone through,” says Robinah Alambuya, TRIUMPH’s Uganda’s executive director, “and displaying that it is possible to have mental health issue, yet you continue with your life, making a meaningful contribution to society.” Robinah is wearing a pink and brown shirt with star designs. Video cuts to a younger Robinah leading a meeting with other TRIUMPH members. Then it transitions to a photo of Robinah wearing a bright blue shirt and white headscarf. She is holding a sign that says, “#Stop Sexual Abuse!”.

“Our first meetings were in 2008,” she says. Video cuts to a photo of two TRIUMPH members holding a sign that says, “Why not affirmative action also in elections.”

“It was a family initiative to begin with. We began calling people on a monthly basis to come home and just to be…We take some tea together,” says Robinah. Video shows a series of photos of TRIUMPH member gatherings. “We would call members who have experienced mental health issues and they would come around – those who chose to come – they would come around and we just share some tea together, and we talk about these issues and our experiences. Then we’ll share information. We’ll do encourage one another. It was like a peer-support group.”

Video cuts to Robinah standing outside and talking with government officials. In the next shot, a group of young Ugandan women stands in a circle outside. “We come, and we share freely and openly that this is part of life and these people are part of our community, which we need to include them and make sure that they participate and actively get involved.”

Series of photos of TRIUMPH members and Robinah. “And also seeing the fruit from our lives, for us have stood out, and we began mentoring the younger people, so the younger people we’ve mentored especially the families can witness because, like children who have fallen out of school, some have come back to school,” says Robinah. “Children who had lost hope that maybe they would never make it in life, they have gone even up to university with the support that they get from the peer support that we give them – the information, the hope-building.”

Video shows a series of photos of young TRIUMPH members dancing and posing for the camera. “The impact of TRIUMPH and our work as prior TRIUMPH can be seen or witnessed by families. We have one of the younger ladies who is well-known – Esther Suubi, who was connected to me by the mother because I shared a lived experience,” says Robinah. “One of her years was really distracted by what she was experiencing.”

Video shows photos of Esther at various family and TRIUMPH events and also speaking to the camera as a spokesperson for TRIUMPH. “When she was connected to me, of course, I just kept on using my story and caused the heart to see light for the in the future, and then the training because we mediated on that time Disability Rights Fund had us to build the self-esteem of these younger women, adults and younger women with psychosocial disabilities,” says Robinah. “We were able to give trainings on building self-esteem, hope-building, and strengthening the peer support among the younger people.”

Robinah continues: “I’m so privileged to see that now she’s really serving in TRIUMPH. Happily, she’s now a peer educator, supporting others, and she’s even leading our Disability Justice Project as a fellow.” Video cuts to a photo of Esther holding a camera and then to a screenshot of an article Esther wrote for the Disability Justice Project. The headline is, “Teen Pregnancy During Covid: Triumph Uganda advocates for better access to sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls with disabilities.”

“I’m very proud, and I also feel good that I’ve added value in my lifetime,” says Robinah. “I’m adding value to other people’s lives.”

Filmmaker: Esther Suubi

Esther Suubi from Uganda is a recent graduate from Uganda Christian University with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. She is a person with a psychosocial disability and an advocate for young girls' and women's voices. Suubi is also a peer educator at Triumph Mental Health Support and does work with the organization's communications team.