Breakthrough Episcopal Social Services is Helping Launch a Community-Based Mental Health Clubhouse in Bungoma, Kenya

by the Rev. Andy Houltberg

The Clubhouse will be the first and only organization to address mental illness in Bungoma County, with a population of 1.5 million people. As you may know, Kenya faces significant challenges in providing mental health services to its population, especially those living in rural and remote areas.

We are fortunate that one of our Wichita team members, David Kapten, an experienced and brilliant community mental health practitioner, will lead this project. David, raised in Bungoma, also had extensive experience leading the Clubhouse program at Breakthrough ESS. Other practitioners, clinicians, researchers, community leaders, and government officials have expressed their desire to support the launch and its ongoing development. People living with mental illness and their families will be actively involved. The goal is to create a vibrant and sustainable center where people with serious mental illness will have the social interventions needed to succeed in their larger community. We hope this center will serve as a model that can be adopted and replicated throughout Kenya and East Africa.

We aim to raise $22,000 to provide technical and financial support for the Bungoma Clubhouse. We will be sending a Breakthrough ESS team to Kenya to participate in the official launch of the Clubhouse and share how spirituality can be a powerful intervention in mental health care.