Enpäs lopetakaan vielä! Ystävä tiukassa paikassa!

Piti lopettaa blogi tuohon edelliseen kirjoitukseen, mutta enpäs lopetakaan. 

Harjoittelu loppui maaliskuun puolessavälissä, mutta ihmiskontaktit säilyvät. Kuten kontakti tähän Rajagiri Collegen yliopiston kirjastossa hymyilevään ugandalaiseen Emmanueliin. Ollaan viestitty toisillemme ahkerasti siitä lähtien kun poistuin Intiasta.

Hymystä huolimatta tämä psykologian opiskelija ja neljän lapsen isä oli kovin huolissaan perheensä pärjäämisestä Ugandassa ilman isää. Emmanuelilla eli kotoisasti Emmalla oli monenlaista vääntöä ja kääntöä viisumin ja yliopiston kanssa, mutta lopulta hän pääsi lähtemään kotiin perheensä luo ja tekemään samalla psykologian käytännön harjoittelua ugandalaiseen mielisairaalaan. Lennon hän sai maksettua amerikkalaisen kaverin lentopisteillä. 

Nyt Emman pitäisi palata takaisin Kochiin, jotta saisi suoritettua loppuun maisteriopintonsa. Hän luotti aluksi valtion tukeen, olihan hänelle myönnetty jo avustusta aiempiin opintoihin. Mutta Ugandassa homma ei toimikaan niin kuin Suomessa. Viranomaiset ovat aika – no, epäluotettavia. 

Eli rakas lukijani, jos sinulla on ylimääräisiä lentopisteitä, joita et tarvitse, Emmalle voi ne lahjoittaa! 

Tässä alla vielä Emmanuelin oma vetoomus, jossa hän kertoo laajemmin taustastaan ja tilanteestaan:

EMMANUEL BYARUHANGA LUWERO TOWN COUNCIL, UGANDA                                        Email: emmahoima@gmail.com Tell: +256702048870

Dear Sir/Madam

RE: REQUEST FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TOWARDS MY M.Sc. PSYCHOLOGY PROGRAMME AT RAJAGIRI COLLEGE, INDIA

I hereby request financial aid for my further studies. I was given a partial scholarship at Rajagiri College of social sciences (Autonomous) in India to study for a Master of Science in Psychology. Rajagiri College of Social Sciences ranks as the best college in the whole state of Kerala. The total of the missing requirements together is USD 5000. This will cover everything including hostel, meals, air ticket, and other school requirements.

My dream of becoming a mental health professional started from having authoritarian and absent parents who never cared at all for their children’s emotional needs. Through my personal resilience against such suffering of child trauma due to abusive parents and limited family resources, I learned to turn defeat into opportunities. I am the 4th born in a family of 8. None of my family members has completed primary school including my parents except me. As I grew up, I came to realize that my family was not much different from other families in our community. But I had faith and passion to do something to change the living conditions and family systems in our community. This motivated me to keep schooling no matter what although sometimes I could seem to be a school dropout as I could first do casual labour for school fees. After my senior 4 (2005), I dropped out of school due to my limited resources for 10 years.

During these 10 years, I devoted my life to the church ministry as a lay evangelist to offer pastoral care to brokenhearted people due to their abusive family environment. The experience of church ministry helped me to understand deeply the inner wounds of the society around me. I also came to realize that such wounds require more systematic mental health professional training. In 2016, I decided to go back to school for counseling psychology training in order to offer effective services to everyone in need regardless of religion or ethnicity.

I started with a Certificate, then a Diploma, and eventually a bachelor’s Degree of Science in Counseling Psychology from the University of Kisubi, Uganda. This enabled me to practice some mental health counseling services for individuals, alcohol/drug addicts, groups, couples/families, and schools in children/universities in youth, and senior citizens that suffer from emotional distress due to the humanitarian crisis of our contemporary world in various parts of Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Israel, and India. My research interest is in the mental health of the most traumatized communities in Uganda (Northern Uganda).

I have come to realize that many people in our community are struggling with a lot of mental health issues due to dysfunctional families, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, post-traumatic stress disorders, child abuse, burnout due to chronic stressors, and many others. The Covid-19 pandemic has also taken a heavy toll on people’s mental health around the world, especially the developing countries. Many of our communities lack adequate mental health resources and have been unable to offer significant support to mitigate the effects of job loss, income shocks, and food insecurity during the pandemic – all of which may be drivers of poor mental health. Such conditions would require highly qualified mental health professionals within our local communities since not everyone can afford to fly abroad for treatment.

However, I have come to realize that more education is still needed if I am to serve better. A Master’s Degree of Science in Psychology will equip me with the clinical assessment tools for effective mental state examination, diagnosis, treatment plan, and much more in our society today. But it is so difficult at the moment for me to raise USD5000 to complete my university requirements due to my limited resources. I, therefore, request your financial assistance towards this noble cause. After my studies, I would like to work hand in hand with the mental health facilities in our society.

Now, I need an air ticket urgently to take me back from Uganda to India. I had come back to Uganda to check on my family as a married man and a father of 4 children. I also came back to Uganda for my internship in the mental health hospital.



I am in my second semester and I hope to complete my studies next year 2024 by May. The contact people for more information about me are Dr. Sr. Nantamu Jane Frances (+256771636976); the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Psychology at the University of Kisubi, Uganda. And Dr. Fr. Varghese K, V (+918593030303); the Dean of the Department of Psychology at Rajagiri College of Social Science, India.

I will be grateful if my request is put under your favorite consideration.

Thank you

Yours sincerely

Emmanuel Byaruhanga