roha

Restoration of Human Abilities Association
008-840 NPO - PBO 930019663

ROHA provides therapeutic and educational services in the field of mental health.

Supported by

The purpose of our public awareness campaigns is to negate the stigma attached to mental illness and to educate the public about mental health issues. Currently we fulfil this function through the use of the mental health awareness play (titled Life's Little Lessons), radio talk shows and through an educational column in our newsletter, ROHA News.

Life's Little Lessons

Mental health is not a popular subject. We therefore decided to present educational material in an entertaining medium, in this case theater. The play appeared live at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2008 and was taken to various Eastern Cape communities in DVD format from 2009 to 2012. The focus was on rural schools, since deep rural communities often do not have mental health care services available to them locally. A workshop was also presented free of charge to community volunteers who can act as lay counsellors and care-givers. So far the programme reached 4000 learners through the DVD and 1,5 million people via radio.

From 2013 the DVD has been made available to other schools, companies, prisons and community groups (across SA) by request. Please contact our office if you require a copy.

Radio appearances

Adelle Potgieter appears on talk shows on local and regional radio stations to create awareness around mental health issues and the work of ROHA.

Right: Adelle with KQFM talk show host, Sebenzile. ROHA was invited to do a weekly series on mental health issues for two months at the end of 2008.

Below: Introducing Healing Spirit to the listenership of Algoa FM - Adelle with Algoa Cares presenters Roy Williams and Charl Leslie, April 2010.

Newsletters

ROHA News is the name of our newsletter. It features updates on our projects as well as educational articles about mental health issues. The newsletter is mainly distributed in hardcopy to local donors and clients (from East London to Knysna), but it is also circulated in PDF-format to supporters and interested parties by email.

If you wish to be placed on the mailing list, please send an email with your subscription request to us at rohasa@aerosat.co.za with 'newsletter subscription' in the subject line. Please indicate whether you would like to receive back issues as well.