women leaders beyond borders
AZADI’S FUNDRAISER TO PROVIDE MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT TO REFUGEES
On Mental Health Day, Azadi is making sure that mental health support for refugee and asylum seekers is visible through an expert-led webinar and a special fundraiser.
Azadi is working with partners on the ground to try and provide mental health and psychosocial support to refugee women.
You can help! Support a refugee women get a session with a therapist/counselor
Why is Azadi focusing on Mental Health for refugee and asylum seekers?
At least one out of three asylum seekers and refugees experience high rates of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) .
The reasons for trauma are manifold, and are often (re-)triggered during the journey and at the host country , due to long waiting periods during asylum processes or inhumane living conditions in reception centres .
While physical harm is easier recognized and governments are ordinarily equipped to provide a medical response, mental health illness and trauma is more difficult to identify and governments either overlook it or downplay its importance.
Evidence-based research shows that asylum seekers in mental distress have an increased probability of being rejected by the immigration officials in their asylum interviews, with often devastating consequences for the individual livelihoods, sucH as deportations to the country of origin.
Deportation to the origin country of forcibly displaced persons usually means a return to the origin point of traumatization. Such outcome is primarily caused by the unpreparedness of authorities to deal with and address the mental health of asylum seekers.
In Turmoil is a film made by four of our refugee women participants. Get to know their stories!