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Amaudo Itumbauzo - Background Information
 Amaudo Itumbauzo was established in 1990 in response to distressing numbers
of mentally ill men and women roaming the streets in local towns in south
eastern Nigeria. Amaudo is a community in which workers and residents, and
in some cases their children, live, work, eat, worship and celebrate
together. The holistic approach to treatment involves skills training,
occupational therapy, psychotropic medicine, emotional and spiritual
counselling and support. Family tracing is carried out and after a number of
home visits residents are eventually resettled. The vast majority of
residents are able to return to their families after completing a programme
of rehabilitation. Amaudo has a second site where those unable to go home
live in a community village. Community life at Amaudo
After years of isolation and withdrawal through mental illness and
destitution Amaudo encourages residents to begin to interact again and live
alongside other residents and workers. The Centre is constructed in a circle
to promote interaction with seats outside each house, round tables in the
dining room and a round chapel. Amaudo encourages residents to rediscover
their rights and responsibilities to one another through shared community
life. This is an appropriate model for reintegration into family and
community as rehabilitation in Nigeria is about empowering people to live in
communal society again rather than about enabling people to be independent
and stand on their own feet and to live alone as it is in the UK. Residents
participate in community work to support the reacquisition of daily living
skills. They also learn a trade or skill that they can use when they return
home so as to be able to contribute to their family and/or community.
The 6 Projects of Amaudo Itumbauzo
The Centre has become a base for a range of services developed to
address mental health issues. They are:
- Amaudo Okopedi
Centre for Mentally Ill Destitutes. Base for rehabilitation and
repatriation of up to 65 homeless mentally ill people.
- Amaudo Ntalakwu
Family House for 7 young people with learning disabilities and
Co-operative Community Village for stable ex-residents of Amaudo
Okopedi.
- The Community Psychiatric Programme
A network of clinics across three states providing accessible,
affordable, professional care to the mentally ill in their own
communities.
- Income Generation
Providing financial sustainability for the work of Amaudo as well as
having a strong community involvement.
- Project Comfort
Community Based Rehabilitation for children with Learning
Disabilities living with their families.
- The Human Rights & Mental Health Awareness Programme
Addressing attitudes towards, and treatment of the mentally ill.
Culturally the African sees mental illness as the result of the
ancestors being offended or as a result of witchcraft, sorcery or demon
possession. Therefore the blame is placed on the person with the mental
illness. This distorts people’s general attitudes towards them. Until
recently the only services for the mentally ill were provided by
traditional healers or faith healers and treatment primarily involves
sacrifices to the offended ancestors, sacrifices to reverse the
witchcraft or sorcery and flogging to exorcise the demon spirit all of
which are followed by herbal remedies. At times the mentally ill are
disfigured to make them less attractive to the spirits who are believed
to have taken them over. Traditional healers tend to chain people both
hand and feet in the fear that they will be violent.
The health infrastructure throughout the country is in a state of almost
total collapse. Government hospitals have no drugs and very few
resources, most of which have been siphoned off to private hospitals
where most medical personnel choose to invest their skills. The vast
majority of the people simply do not have the money to seek professional
medical help. They are forced instead to patronise the innumerable
pharmacies which have sprung up all over the villages and towns run by
unqualified personnel who have supplies of a wide range of drugs.
The fashion today, with the popularity of born again spirituality, is to
take your sick relative to a faith healer, or prayer house, where
treatment consists simply of prayers and anointing with oil and water.
Many of the vagrant psychotics have run away from these prayer houses.
The few psychiatric hospitals in the country run by the Federal
Government offer the only serious attempt to meet the needs of mentally
ill people. In the three states in which Amaudo operates there is no
such hospital.
 At
the age of 18, Chukwunanu had never sat. His disabilities meant he
could not balance to sit on the floor or in a chair. He spent his
time kneeling on a concrete area in the yard, hanging on with his
elbows and starining to see what was going on. Project Comfort, as
part of Amaudo, works with children who have learning or physical
disabilities to enable them to achieve their potential.
After assessment by fieldworkers, Chukwunanu's
chair was made by a local carpenter and has for the first time
enabled him to sit outside the house and see the world for himself.
Although he is unable to talk - his smile speaks volumes.
"On our first visit to Nigeria, Chukwunanu was
being helped into a chair for the first time in his life. The smile
on his face spoke volumes; he so clearly knew it was for him. When
we returned to Nigeria nearly a year later it was a joy to see him
sitting proudly in a specially construicted chair, able to
participate in what was going on around him in the community." |
Infrastructure
Amaudo Itumbauzo is situated in Abia state in south-eastern Nigeria,
deep in the heart of the rain forest. The vast majority of the
population of these states are rural dwellers and in the main
subsistence farmers.
Electricity - Many families still live in traditional mud houses and
electrical power is still many years away for a significant number of
the population. Amaudo Itumbauzo has a generator which supplies power
for 3 hours each evening to the whole centre (when fuel is available)
and a smaller generator which supplies the office so that computers and
other electrical equipment can be used.
Water - Many villages now have bore-holes to supply them with clean
drinking water although by no means all. Amaudo Itumbauzo is lucky
enough to have good quality running water.
Travel - Apart from a few major routes travelling around the area can be
extremely difficult and sometimes during rainy season completely
impossible making community based services essential. The main route to
Amaudo Itumbauzo from Umuahia, the State capital, is in appalling
condition yet most journeys out of the Centre begin on this road making
days out long and arduous.
Healthcare - The nearest hospital to Amaudo is about 1 hour away but
facilities are very basic. The Centre currently has one trained doctor
from the UK resident it also has a resident auxiliary nurse.
Community and Cultural Expectations
Amaudo Itumbauzo is a Methodist Church Nigeria Project and is situated
in rural Igboland where community life is governed by a code of
traditional customs and practices. Workers from the UK will be expected
to participate in community life and therefore need to be aware of these
customs and sensitive to them. Smoking is generally disapproved of, so
smokers should be discreet and be prepared to face criticism! Similarly
drinking alcohol inside Amaudo is not really acceptable and needs to be
done discreetly too. There are some local bars which can be visited in
moderation! No drug taking of any kind is acceptable. All workers should
be sensitive to the needs of the mentally ill residents some of whom
have drink and drug problems and are undergoing rehabilitation
programmes. It is important to dress sensitively and UK visitors will be
advised before travel.
Amaudo itself is a Christian community and each day begins and ends with
30 minutes prayer in the chapel with singing choruses and the playing of
local instruments. Longer term workers will be expected to participate
in this.
Amaudo UK site |