For­got­ten Pro­blems crea­te For­got­ten People”

- Dai­ni­us Puras, UN Spe­cial Envoy, 2017


Peop­le suf­fe­ring from men­tal ill­ness, epi­le­psy or psy­cho­so­cial disa­bi­li­ties do not recei­ve ade­qua­te tre­at­ment or sup­port in many coun­tries, espe­cial­ly poor ones. The plight of tho­se affec­ted and their fami­lies is hard­ly taken into account by the regio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal public, and their rights are vio­la­ted in many dif­fe­rent ways. Tho­se affec­ted are made invi­si­ble and for­got­ten. Howe­ver, the huma­ni­ty of a socie­ty is reflec­ted in the way it deals with its wea­kest members.



The Mind­ful Chan­ge Foun­da­ti­on (MCF), foun­ded in Darm­stadt (Ger­ma­ny) in 2018, is com­mit­ted to sup­por­ting the local pro­mo­ti­on of social psych­iatric pro­jects. It offers pro­fes­sio­nal and finan­cial help. Whe­re­ver pos­si­ble, we coope­ra­te with other orga­niz­a­ti­ons acti­ve in this field.

Situa­ti­on and Vision

Peop­le with seve­re men­tal or epi­lep­tic ill­nes­ses or with psy­cho­so­cial disa­bi­li­ties often behave in an unfa­mi­li­ar, stran­ge, and con­fu­sing or irri­ta­ting way and some­ti­mes have a threa­tening effect on their neigh­bor­hood and fami­ly. The reac­tions are often incom­pre­hen­si­on, fear and aggres­si­on. In addi­ti­on, they them­sel­ves and their rela­ti­ves need con­stant help to cope with ever­y­day life.  In many coun­tries tho­se affec­ted are stig­ma­ti­zed, iso­la­ted, disen­fran­chised and trea­ted cru­el­ly, some­ti­mes for years and deca­des. Alt­hough they are nume­rous in all socie­ties, they usual­ly have no lob­by and can­not them­sel­ves make public the injus­ti­ce done to them. The rela­ti­ves are very bur­den­ed or over­whel­med and are often left in the lurch.

Some cul­tures see the con­se­quen­ces of mental­ly ill­ness as the result of guilt or demon pos­ses­si­on in the beha­vi­or of the sick. Some “tre­at­ment” is sup­po­sed to tame or expel demons. This usual­ly hap­pens whe­re the­re is no or very litt­le psych­iatric care, as in many Afri­can and Asi­an countries. 

This is MCF’s visi­on: Peop­le with men­tal ill­ness and epi­le­psy should recei­ve huma­ne tre­at­ment in all coun­tries of the world. They have a right to it.  Their rights have been for­mu­la­ted in many con­ven­ti­ons, inclu­ding the UN Inter­na­tio­nal Covenant on Eco­no­mic, Social and Cul­tu­ral Rights of 1966 and the UN Con­ven­ti­on on the Rights of Per­sons with Disa­bi­li­ties, which  came into for­ce in 2008 (see “Back­ground and Mate­ri­als” on this website).

Our work is based on inter­na­tio­nal and regio­nal exper­ti­se, in par­ti­cu­lar the Men­tal Health Action Plan 2013–2020, which makes the fol­lowing deman­ds:

• Destig­ma­ti­sa­ti­on
• Updating natio­nal legis­la­ti­on
• Deve­lo­p­ment of natio­nal men­tal health pro­grams
• Trai­ning of non-psych­iatric health workers
• Decen­tra­li­zed sup­ply
• Prio­ri­ty for out­pa­ti­ent work over inpa­ti­ent work
• Drug sup­ply 
• Inpa­ti­ent tre­at­ment pla­ces in gene­ral hospitals

News

2. December. 2021

News: Smart­pho­nes enab­le digi­tal con­nec­ti­vi­ty bet­ween vol­un­te­ers and staff at Yenfaabima

New devices were purcha­sed to sup­port coope­ra­ti­on and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on bet­ween vol­un­te­ers On 24 Octo­ber 2021, Timo­thée Tinda­no, psych­iatric nur­se and full-time employee at Yen­faa­bi­ma in Pié­la, Bur­ki­na Faso, wro­te: “I her­eby inform you that we have purcha­sed the smart­pho­nes, the power­banks and the lap­top. The vol­un­te­ers for whom the devices are inten­ded had never used a […]

24. July. 2020

Acti­vi­ty report SAMENTACOM 2019–2020

The cur­rent annu­al acti­vi­ty report of the SAMENTACOM project.

24. July. 2020

The MCF com­mit­ment in Pié­la / Bur­ki­na Faso

Case reports from the work of Yenfaabima.

24. July. 2020

Annu­al Report 2019–2020

Here you can find the annu­al report 2019–2020 of our foundation.

31. May. 2019

Report on our trip to Côte d’I­voi­re in April 2019 and the sta­tus of the SAMENTACOM project

From 1 to 11 April 2019, we tra­vel­led to Côte d’I­voi­re to see how the SAMENTACOM pro­ject in Bouaké, sup­por­ted by our Foun­da­ti­on, has progressed. […]

31. May. 2019

Bur­ki­na Faso: A psych­iatric nur­se has star­ted work in Piéla

With the sup­port of our Mind­ful Chan­ge Foun­da­ti­on, the asso­cia­ti­on Yen­faa­bi­ma in Piéla/Burkina Faso was able to employ a psych­iatric spe­cia­list from 1 March 2019. […]

31. May. 2019

Amnes­ty Inter­na­tio­nal Symposium

On 16.02.2019 a sym­po­si­um on human rights vio­la­ti­ons against peop­le with men­tal ill­ness, epi­le­psy and men­tal disa­bi­li­ty took place in the Gieß­haus of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Kassel. […]

31. May. 2019

Docu­men­ta­ry “La Mala­die du Démon”

The film “La Mala­die du Démon” (2018) by direc­tor Lilith Kug­ler shows the situa­ti­on of mental­ly and epi­lep­ti­cal­ly ill peop­le in Bur­ki­na Faso. […]