Children can suffer from mental illnesses. The stigma attached to this can be particularly destructive, especially in school.

Atagona Kwame is now 15 and for much of his childhood he has suffered from epilepsy. Atagona has also suffered because people in his Ghanaian community believe that epilepsy is infectious. Atagona explains the effects of this ignorance:

“They (my classmates) won’t allow me to sit with them; they will not also lend me any of their things. They won’t share their food with me, and, as much as possible, they avoid any contact with me.”

The stigma associated with epilepsy led to the mistreatment of Atagona and his family. Things got so bad he tried to commit suicide. However, now things are much better. Thanks to an observant nurse Atagona was diagnosed with epilepsy and received treatment. BasicNeeds is working with Atagona, and this attention, as well as the stability provided by the treatment, means that attitudes are changing and Atagona finally has a few friends.

Children are also required to take care of mentally ill family members, or other brothers and sisters when their parents are ill.

This means that very young children are forced to take on great responsibilities and care and provide for their families.

In India, we came across Rupa, a twelve year old girl who was caring for her younger sister after her mother developed a mental illness. Her mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital so Rupa was left alone to care for her three younger sisters. She had to beg for food so they could eat, do all the household chores, make sure that her sisters attended school and then go to school herself – with her youngest sister Neelam in tow as she was too young to go to school herself. Rupa was dealing with stress and responsibility for someone far beyond her years.

The rise of HIV/AIDS has meant that a lot of children are caring for mentally ill siblings as both their parents have died.

There are a lot of child carers in Tanzania, as HIV/AIDS is a very serious problem there. These children have very little support and help with looking after the mentally ill relatives they are responsible for.

Lucas is 13 years old and the carer for his 16 year old brother, Martine, after both their parents died from AIDS. Martine suffers from epilepsy. Neither of them attend school: the stigma attached to Matine’s condition prevents him from attending and Lucas is too busy looking after his brother. Lucas spends a lot of time guarding his brother from the taunts and abuse of their community.

To respond to this we have developed the ‘Who Cares?’ project, designed to specifically help children who are carers by teaching them caring skills, addressing their social isolation and giving them the chance of a brighter future.

Click here to donate to this project so that we can help more children live a better life. >>