YouBelong Uganda, is helping to build the future for children and adolescents in countries such as Uganda. In settings where teachers are not trained in understanding the emotional care and wellbeing of children, children suffer much school-based trauma, that stays with them for life and limits their ability to have a happy and productive life in the community and contribute to the common good and social cohesion.

The highly esteemed Lancet Psychiatric Journal reported that mental ill health is a major threat to the lives and futures of young people across the world. Unlike physical illnesses that occur in higher rates as we age, mental illness is the reverse. It has a peak age of onset of 15 years of age, with 63-75% of onsets occurring by age 25 years. Yet globally the lack of investment in youth mental health is a moral scandal. Young people have a universal human right to mental health care, a safe and secure education, and the prospect of a good future.

YouBelong Uganda sees itself as helping to build a better world for children and young people which is very important at a time such as this. Africa has what is called a ‘Youth Bubble’. 60% of Africa’s population is under 25. In Uganda nearly 50% of its approx. 48 million people, are under 15 years of age! And Africa’s population of 1.4 billion is predicted to increase by an additional 1 billion people by 2050.
One of our most important innovations is called POWERFULMINDS. It is an interactive and collaborative mental health care innovation for children and adolescents in school communities. It is focusing on prevention and early intervention.
The POWERFUL MINDS innovation turns schools into safe and nurturing communities that place the wellbeing of children and their human development as the foundation for their education. To achieve this, schools become interactive with families, local communities, and health care centers. And children/adolescents themselves become important drivers of this dynamic work, in dialogue with the YBU team.