In the Mandinka language, “mobee” means “all of us”, “everyone”, “every person”. This is what Salifu Manneh, who grew up in Gambia and now lives in England, where he is a mental health nurse, explains to me. I invite you to discover the history of this landlocked country and listen to Salifu tell us about Mobee Gambia.
Together with a number of colleagues, Salifu set up the Mobee Gambia association, whose history and projects he recently told me about. “At the time, I was working for Alternative Futures Group, and its director, Neil Campbell, wanted to give something back to the staff. We chose to go on study trips to Gambia to see how the health system worked there.” Established in 1992 in Liverpool, Alternative Futures Group is “a health and social care charity offering specialist support to people with a learning disability or mental illness.”
“Following these trips to Gambia between 2013 and 2015, we didn’t want to leave it at that. In 2017, we decided to set up a mental health program. The idea of this program was to support the rehabilitation of patients in the community after an hospitalization.” By one of those happy coincidences, Salifu heard about the practice of horticultural therapy through a program in the field of mental health in Cumbria, a county in the north of England. “I saw that this program reduced anxiety, brought relaxation and that it was natural, not medical. People weren’t patients, they were treated like everyone else. I thought we could use this idea in our project in Gambia.”
A Garden is not just a Garden
“In Gambia, the garden is a source of food and income. My mother had a large garden. We kept part of the harvest and the other part was sold. As well as being good for health, the garden is very important for families and their financial balance”, explains the nurse. “Furthermore, we were convinced that when patients are removed from the controlled environment of the hospital, their behaviors and interactions change completely. I know there’s a lot of research on this”. As Salifu, who has cared for people in many different situations over the course of his career (age-related cognitive disorders, substance abuse, forensics and rehabilitation…) sums it up, inspiration came from many sources including his personal experience and the study trip to Gambia. “A garden is not just a garden. It’s far beyond our understanding. It’s a safe place, an activity that can contribute beyond medicine in the field of mental health.”
In February 2024, when our interview was first published, Salifu was back in Gambia to continue advancing Mobee Gambia’s projects. “We have several objectives: education and mental health promotion, addiction treatment for young people, but also the fight against sex trafficking by tourists from Europe and the USA and unemployment. In Gambia, 60% of the population is young, and if they can’t work, problems arise. Young people take great risks getting on boats, and illegal immigration is very dangerous. That’s why it’s important to create opportunities locally, so that they have the skills to stay rather than leave for Europe, where they face many challenges before they can live independently. We’re going to have one-on-ones with the government. And of course, the subject of green care will come up.”
Institutional and Community Care
“Mental health education is needed in the community, so that everyone can learn to protect their own mental health. For example, alcohol and cannabis use make people more vulnerable to anxiety and depression. We’d like to raise awareness about this and train people who can disseminate this information. In Gambia, mental health care is quite poor. There’s just one psychiatric hospital, Tanka Tanka, with a hundred beds that are always full…in a country of two million inhabitants,” says the psychiatric nurse and director of Mobee Gambia. He details the conditions of mental health in Gambia in this report published on the association’s website in December 2023.
Salifu is concerned about the quality of care in institutions, where there are many risks of abuse, and he believes that staying connected to one’s community, where patients can be respected and supported, is more beneficial. Traditional medicine is also a force to be reckoned with. “In Gambia, traditional herbal medicine is practiced in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. Of course, it is not validated by trials like drugs and, in severe cases, drugs are still necessary.” This practice of traditional medicine (leaves, roots…) coexists with a cultural belief that we live healthier lives when we eat less processed food, rich in salt and sugar, and more fresh food.
And that brings us back to the importance of gardens in the country. According to the psychiatric nurse, these gardens have a distinctive feature. “If you look at the gardens in Gambia, you’ll see 99.5% women growing vegetables. If the women stopped, the markets would be empty in a week”, says Salifu, “How can we help them make the work less hard? For example, by improving irrigation with boreholes, pumps and water tanks. Because, as I said, the income generated by the sale of vegetables helps families both directly and by being invested in microfinance.”
Mobee Gambia in Action
A non-governmental organization, Mobee Gambia is “a non-profit, impartial and non-partisan charity whose mission is to support people with mental health problems”. Its main office is located in Brufut, Kombo North, in the West Coast region. In addition, Mobee UK, a UK-registered charity, oversees and monitors governance, including Mobee Gambia’s financial accountability system.
Salifu recounts how the project began, the promising advances and the obstacles encountered, including…. Covid. “In Brufut, we were looking for land. We met the head of the town who gave us a plot of land belonging to the town. For us, this ensures continuity. Before Covid, we had met with women’s groups. We gave them the land and let them organize themselves,” he explains.
“In this garden, we call people by name. They’re not patients. We’ve fenced off the land and have plans to build a building to house groups and classes. We’re careful about local connections and try to be as hands-off as possible. For example, we have no staff on site. Unfortunately, Neil Campbell’s death slowed down the project. But we’re not giving up, and we keep knocking on the right doors, especially for government or corporate funding.”
Partnerships can take many forms. For example, social work students from Liverpool Hope University have visited Gambia to contribute their skills, and a volunteer IT specialist, Robert Hufton from Higher Ground UX, manages the Mobee Gambia website from England. All goodwill is welcome.
Salifu points out that the dry season runs from October to April, and the rainy season from June to September. “During the rainy season, we planted cassava to sell in order to buy equipment and seeds to get the garden going again.” Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, watermelons, lettuces and cabbages are on the agenda.
Substance Abuse Program in Bulock
Faced with the lack of a treatment program for substance addictions, Mobee Gambia has also proposed a service in the town of Bulock, where Salifu grew up and attended elementary school. There, the project is to create a drop-in center, close to the river for its calming effect, with activities such as learning about computers to increase the skills of the participants.
“We want to encourage people to self-manage better so they can live better. It’s a massive project, but feasible,” announces Salifu full of hope and enthusiasm. “We want people in The Gambia to rely more on their own resources than on outside resources. We’re aiming for self-sufficiency. For example, alongside help with addiction prevention, we want to develop a training program to become a tailor. We already have a bakery in the Brufut program. Ideas come thick and fast.
During his stay in The Gambia in February 2024, Salifu wrote me: “We had a very successful education and mental well being promotion with a group of young people at Sukuta senior secondary school yesterday from 5 pm -8pm. I was wearing a white traditional dress and a blue hat. The theme was drug and alcohol issues affecting young people’s mental wellbeing in our communities.”
“In Gambia, there’s such a lack of mental health. I want to help,” he concludes.
