Alhassan Mohammed is a 27 year old young man who lives in Northern Ghana. He has benefited from BasicNeeds Sustainable Livelihood programme, which helps mentally ill people learn valuable skills and start work. Under the scheme, he has been able to establish a shop where he now sells bicycle spare parts. He has also gone into partnership with his uncle who is a bicycle repairer to learn how to repair bicycles alongside selling his wares.

Alhassan tells how he came into contact with BasicNeeds, "I cannot quite remember, but I think that one day I found myself around Sakasaka, a suburb of Tamale, near the Afa Ejura mosque walking in the middle of the street alone and talking to myself. According to some of the people who saw me, they said I was even chasing cars. It was then that an Arabic instructor at Ambariya Arabic School called Mr. Iddi Adama, who was also a Psychiatric Nurse and the Community Mental Health Officer for BasicNeeds, found me. Mr. Iddi took me in his car home. He occasionally came to visit me and give drugs until I was asked to be visiting the community psychiatric unit for the drugs myself."

Alhassan wasn't always in this terrible state. Before he got ill, he was a hard worker with high hopes for the future. "Before my illness started, I had a piece of land I was cultivating in my village, Zuo. I used to also take active part in working on our family farm. Later in 2001, I moved to Ejura, a farming town in the Brong Ahafo Region, with my friends to be a daily farm labourer. I was able to raise money to buy a piece of land back home, hoping to develop it later when I got the money. Unfortunately for me, I fell ill."

"My illness started like malaria. My temperature was always high and my eyes became very red. One day I felt very feverish. The following day, my temperature rose very high and I became very violent; I didn't know what was happening to me.

"My friends tied me with ropes and took me to the village of Teacherkrom hoping to find a vehicle to transport me to Tamale. Most of the Lorries plying the road refused to pick me up because I was violent. It was the driver of a Benz-bus who agreed to take me and that was about 3.00pm.

"It was five days after I left home when I arrived in Tamale. That's when I was wandering in the streets of town and Mr. Iddi was called to pick me up."

With no treatment available in communities, mentally ill people are forced to travel long distances to try and get treatment, and as Alhassan shows, the journey can be very stressful and even when they arrive there is no guarantee of care and assistance.

"During my illness" he continued "most of my friends left me. They wouldn't come near me, not even those I helped when things were better. They all shun my company. I was always alone. My uncles sold all the property I acquired from the proceeds of my farming activities including the piece of land I bought with my own money. They told me that they used it to treat me. Someone else has developed that land now."

"Alhassan feels that he has been unfairly treated by his friends and even his family members. He mentioned that when his colleagues brought him from Ejura, the little savings that he made and the few things that he had over there were not brought along with him. He said they might have shared them among themselves.

Mohammed Alhassan is now a very happy young man trying to rebuild his life and look into the future. After treatment, he was one of the mentally ill people identified by Amasachina Self Help Association, BasicNeeds livelihoods partner, as a candidate for a getting help with starting a business. He was able to receive a loan of ¢2,000,000.00 (£119) with which he was able to establish a bicycle spare parts shop. He is one of the first beneficiaries to repay his loan. Mohammed is even said to be negotiating to join the mainstream credit scheme of Amasachina where he can access more money to expand his small business.

The improvement in his condition has quickened community acceptance of him and his illness and he has been reintegrated back into his family and the community at large. He is now able to contribute to the family income and, according to his master, he even lends money out to friends and relatives who sometimes are urgently in need of financial assistance.

"I now feel part of my own community; maybe because I am now earning and can support myself. When I first recovered and was not yet doing anything, I was always sidelined when it came to decision making, but now I am fully involved in matters I was previously excluded from. Neighbours are surprised at my relationship with you people, [referring to BasicNeeds] especially the visits you make to me. The Whiteman's visit [referring to the visit of our Founder Director, Chris Underhill] to me is still on the lips of my neighbours who saw him."

"Mohammed has benefited from a number of training sessions on micro credit management on how to manage his business better. He also attended consultation meetings where he shared his experience and heard stories of other mentally ill people in business. His work with BasicNeeds so far has given him enough assurance that all is not yet lost in life. He has even got married recently and has since had a baby boy. He is surely now back to living a normal life. He has high hopes for the future and with our help we hope that he can achieve them.

Written by Alando Bernard, BasicNeeds Northern Ghana

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