Wednesday 25 March 2020

Last trip of this Grant Year.






Feb March trip 2020: Lesley and Joanna: Case study writing and safeguarding training, increasing sustainability for the ZART trainers’ group, and extending the reach of The Zambia Therapeutic Art Course.

Joanna and Lesley in a rare moment of relaxation!
 We (Lesley and Joanna) made the last visit of this Scottish Government funded Capacity Building year with additional support from MAITS.  We staggered the trip, Lesley going out first joined by Joanna after a week or so and she stayed on when Lesley left; so, between us we were there for a month. It was still at the end of the rainy season, so life was interspersed with thunderous downpours and everything was looking lush and green. In fact, the rains had brought some flooding and damage to roads. There was also a brief, and very unusual for Zambia, outburst of community violence which did affect everyday life for a lot of the country. We were safely positioned at Gossner Mission and weren’t attempting to work in any of the most affected areas, so apart from not going out at night – which we don’t do a lot of!  we were not affected. There were, however, some very tragic outcomes.  Fortunately, we undertook this trip just ahead of the coronavirus shut-downs.
The Case Study Writing Training was part of ZTA’s initiative to increase the evidence base for the use of Therapeutic Art (TA), as well as an opportunity for increasing skills in writing for publication amongst ZART and others trained in use of TA.  Wala, a ZART trainer, coordinated the training planning which was delivered by Psychology Association of Zambia. It was a very successful 3 days training and all 10 participants, 6 ZART members and 4 other Therapeutic Art practitioners, enjoyed the process and learned a lot from each other as well as the excellent facilitators. They will receive ongoing support to work towards publication of their case studies.  
Safeguarding training was delivered to ZART trainers (Lesley) and included a presentation from Chief Detective Inspector Siabone from the Zambia Police Service Victim Support Unit.  This introductory training was welcomed by ZART; as the concept of safeguarding is fairly new in Zambia, they were interested in further trainings and also linkage with the victim support unit.
Capacity Building Project Evaluation.  At a meeting with Margarate Munakampe, our Zambian coordinator we discussed her findings on the data gathering initiatives and the concept of safeguarding and its growth in Zambian organisations. 
ZART team progress. ZART members gave feedback regarding the progress of the project over the year and updates on their experiences of delivering The ZTA Course independently from ZTA trainers. They also gave feedback about the ZTA Course Manual and some useful and thoughtful alterations and additions.
 Future planning. Meetings with the Ministry of Health (MoH) 
Cielle with Lesley and James
mental health team led to some useful discussions as to how to continue to extend the reach of TA in health institutions across Zambia. Extending the ZTA course to Community Mental Health staff was also discussed as a priority. ZTA and the MoH will work together to progress towards these joint goals. Other meetings focusing on extending the reach of The ZTA Course, were with ‘Challenges Zambia’  who are going to do a  scoping exercise, and a visit to the Centre of Excellence (Paediatric HIV), in UTH which will hopefully yield training opportunities as the team there were very interested.  A meeting with the Health Professions Council of Zambia was also valuable in exploring how TA skills could fit into continuing professional development staff frameworks. Useful meetings with leads from CIDRZ (Centre for Infectious disease Research Zambia) Mental Health Unit and CBM enabled networking and our sharing of our different and related initiatives. One aim is to collaboratively coordinate our efforts to strengthen the delivery of Psychosocial therapies within Zambia. A visit from an Art Therapist, Cielle, interested in setting up a similar TA training in Zimbabwe was an added pleasure. She was introduced to the ZART team and the UTH psychiatry department and has now introduced us to interested mental health professionals in Zimbabawe.
slowly and steadily!
As always being in Lusaka, catching up with friends and colleagues and enjoying the haven of Gossner Mission was a welcome break from the Scottish winter. Overall, this busy and intensive trip was very productive. It feels as though the awareness of Therapeutic Art and its value is growing and deepening and the experience and confidence of ZART is continuing to develop impressively. We seem poised to move on to the next stages of our Strategic Plan.





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