Mental Health Kenya Project #64773

Expand Mental Health Support to Neema's guardians

by Neema Project

Project Report | May 4, 2026
Providing Counseling IN the Community

By Gaelle Beltran Gremaud | Executive Director

A Neema Counselor in the Community

Neema conducts monthlycommunity counseling and community care training sessions. Last month's gathering brought together more than 20 community members, including three pastors and three village elders, creating an important opportunity for emotional healing, encouragement, and community support.

The session began with one of Neema's counselors introducing Neema’s counseling and explaining the purpose of reaching out to the community. The training focused on themes of unconditional love, compassion, healing, and personal worth. Participants reflected on how painful experiences such as rejection, trauma, and suffering can harden hearts and make it difficult to experience love, forgiveness, and hope.

Through practical illustrations, including the comparison of a stone and a mattress, participants learned about the importance of having softened hearts that are open to healing, restoration, and healthy relationships. Another powerful illustration used clean and wrinkled money to show that although people may feel damaged by life experiences, their value as individuals never changes.

The training had a strong impact on those who attended. One village elder expressed gratitude for the counseling outreach, sharing that the community is deeply hurting and that this kind of teaching will help bring positive transformation. He also requested future training sessions for local youth. A mother reflected on the importance of forgiveness and having a renewed and open heart after attending the session.

As one participant shared, “People here are really hurting, and when you reach out like this, it will help transform our community.”

Overall, the session demonstrated the growing impact of Neema’s counseling ministry within the community by bringing healing, hope, forgiveness, and emotional encouragement to local leaders and residents.

Links:

Learn more about Neema's Counseling

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Jan 12, 2026
Beyond Campus - Bringing Change to the Community

By Gaelle Beltran-Gremaud | Executive Director

A Neema Counselor with Local School Children

At Neema, we’ve seen that lasting change means supporting young women at home as well as school.

Students, teachers and counselors come together with guardians, neighbors, churches, and local schools to support healing from all sides.

“I am a mother of a teen and pre-teen children and...I have discovered that I am a permissive parent but after learning the impact this type of parenting style has on my children, I have resolved from today to be intentional in raising up my children effectively...so that I raise up confident, responsible, and socially skilled children who will have positive influence in the society.''-Guardian attending counseling

Here are four ways restoration is spreading through the whole community:

Neema is offering parenting workshops for caregivers and members of the community. Parents and guardians have a space to support one another and find new ways of navigating the journey of raising their children.
Neema students find joy and support attending a warm local church. Many students felt like outcasts before joining Neema, and the local church is playing an important role in restoring a sense of community with mentors and neighbors.
Two pilot farms are linking Neema agribusiness students with local families in “living classrooms.” At these pilot farms and in monthly permaculture workshops, students and families discover sustainable farming methods to improve nutrition and even bring additional income at harvest.
Neema’s counselors are also working with two nearby primary schools. Every month, they hold workshops teaching schoolchildren to manage stress, set goals, and build healthy relationships. Our goal is to help more girls stay in school until graduation.

“Neema counseling has helped me...to choose friends wisely, to stay away from any abuse, and to avoid mental stress.”-Joy, Grade 9, Waitaluk Public School

Links:

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Sep 15, 2025
PAMOJA RUN to Raise Awareness about Mental Health

By Hellen Ondoro | Neema Counselor

Pamoja Run

On June 7th, over 300 children and teens from the local school ran for mental health!

The Pamoja Run was organized by Neema, and the participants ran from our campus to the local primary school. We hosted this event to raise funds that would empower the community through counseling and conducting outreaches in the local schools.

In rural Kenya, mental health is a serious concern among school aged children. Many children grow up facing trauma—abandonment, violence, and the harsh realities of extreme poverty. Some go to school hungry, unsure of where their next meal will come from. Like Neema students, many are forced to drop out of school due to a lack of school fees, leaving them vulnerable to substance abuse, teenage pregnancy, child labor, and a cycle of hopelessness.

Neema’s counselors recently started visiting local schools to support children and teens, as well as their teachers. Teachers are often overwhelmed by the dual responsibility of addressing students' psychological and emotional well-being while also managing learning in an overcrowded classroom that routinely welcomes more than 50 students. But the need for mental health support is far greater than what we could offer.

We are grateful that we were able to raise over a hundred thousand Kenyan shillings in Kenya and over $14,000 from our global supporters through our Pamoja Run! These funds will help Neema to achieve one of its goals of empowering the local community through providing counseling to members of the community and contributing to their emotional and psychological wellbeing.

The highlights of the day included joining with primary school students, guardians of the students, and members of the community. They made the run more lively and enjoyable, and demonstrated the impact of Neema in the community. Another highlight of the day was participants receiving gifts after the race. All who participated were given a backpack made at Neema with water and a banana inside as a token of appreciation. It was wonderful to see the young students get a chance to relax from class and other daily duties through the day’s entertainment.

Those who participated in the race were mostly teenagers who need counseling to improve their mental health. Counseling is also critical to their growth and can empower them to make informed life decisions so that they do not end up making detrimental decisions such as engaging in unhealthy relationships. This could lead to teenage pregnancy, school dropout, drug addiction, and many other issues which all compromise a child’s dreams in life.

Thanks to people like you, we’re able to provide trauma-informed counseling to those who need it most. More than 1,500 school children in rural Kenya will be provided with free, ongoing counseling!

Pamoja Run

Links:

Video of Pamoja Run

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