Mental Health in African Countries is in Complete Crisis. CONDEMNED is a photo project turned book by Photographer Robin Hammond. The book documents the appalling conditions of mental health in African countries, published by FotoEvidence Book Award. The book offers 132 pages of black and white images and interviews with politicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors and patients. Where there is war, famine, displacement, it is the most vulnerable that suffer the greatest. Abandoned by governments, forgotten by the aid community, neglected and abused by entire societies. Africans with mental illness in regions in crisis are resigned to the dark corners of churches, chained to rusted hospital beds, locked away to live behind the bars of filthy prisons. Some have suffered trauma leading to illness. Others were born with mental disability. In countries where infrastructure has collapsed and mental health professionals have fled, treatment is often the same – a life in chains. I started documenting the lives of the mentally ill in African countries in crisis in an attempt to raise awareness of their plight. I travelled to war ravaged areas of Congo, South Sudan, Mogadishu and Uganda. I spent time with the displaced in refugee camps in Somalia and Dadaab. In Nigeria I went to see the impacts of corruption on facilities for the mentally ill. After 12 years of documenting human rights issues I’ve never come across a greater assault on human dignity. These people are unseen and therefore their suffering ignored. This project is being produced in the hope that no longer will ignorance be able to be used as an excuse for inaction. Hammonds CONDEMNED won 2nd Prize - Contemporary Issues Stories, World Press Photo Exhibition. See more of his work here. robinhammond.co.uk/condemned-mental-health-in-african-countries-in-crisis
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 23:14:09 +0000
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