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Braveheart Project
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From Training to Transformation: How Community Champions Are Leading Sierra Leone’s Mental Health Revolution 

September 1, 2025

From Training to Transformation: How Community Champions Are Leading Sierra Leone's Mental Health Revolution

  • Dr. Isaac Olufadewa, Executive Director, Slum and Rural Health Initiative (SRHIN)

“I’m not a user, but I’ve suffered because of Kush.” — Fatima, 17 

In the heart of Freetown, where life pulses through every alley and market stall, Fatima’s voice breaks through. We met Fatima during our community intermediary training at Funkia Portor community, one of the informal settlement communities in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She’s not addicted, but she’s a victim of a brother lost to synthetic drugs, and of a community drowning in silence. Her story is not unique. It echoes across classrooms, football fields, and marketplaces, where young people face the daily threat of substance use disorder without support, without protection, and often, without hope. This is why the Brave Heart Project exists. Not just to treat, but to transform. Not just to speak, but to listen, sparking a movement that places youth mental health and drug awareness at the center of community healing. 

Last month, I witnessed something remarkable in Funkia-Portor and Cocklebay, two communities where kush, tramadol, and alcohol have become the false solutions to very real problems. Twenty-four community leaders stepped forward, ready to be trained as Community Mental Health Therapists under our Brave Heart Project. 

The Power of Task-Shifting: When Communities Heal Themselves

For too long, we’ve approached mental health and substance use prevention as issues that require specialists. But what happens when those specialists are few and far between? What happens when the communities that need help most have the least access to professional mental health services? 

This is where the beauty of task-shifting reveals itself. Alfred Turray from Funkia-Portor wasn’t a trained therapist when he walked into our training session. He was simply a community member who had watched too many young people lose their way to substances. But after two days of intensive training on cognitive-behavioral therapy principles, emotional regulation, and peer support techniques, Alfred had a clear mission: “As young people, we for say NO to drugs, and wen we say NO, we for firm.” 

The task-shifting model creates a network of informed, empowered community members who can recognize early signs of distress, provide initial support, and know when to refer someone for specialized help. Most importantly, it places healing power in the hands of those who understand their community’s unique challenges and cultural nuances. 

Breaking the Silence, One Story at a Time

What struck me most wasn’t the curriculum delivery or assessment scores, it was the moment when silence broke. Participants shared stories buried under shame and stigma. They spoke of young people they knew personally, neighbors who had lost themselves to substances. 

Aminata Thullah from Funkia Community captured it perfectly: “Waetin ar don learn from d training ar for help me small wan dem, make den nor take drugs n make den know say substance use disorder e very bad.” Her words weren’t just testimony, they were commitment to break the cycle of silence that has allowed substance abuse to flourish in darkness.

In Cocklebay, despite heavy rains, all participants showed up against the odds. Fatima Bundu’s conviction was clear: “I will use this knowledge that I have learnt by enlightening those that are taking kush, that kush is not good for your health, kush would destroy your future.” 

This is what happens when you give people knowledge and permission to care openly. The shame dissolves. Whispered concerns become spoken commitments. Individual struggles become community solutions. 

Beyond Training: The Multiplication Effect

Now comes the real work. The trained community champions will each recruit and work with young people aged 10-24 in their communities. That’s potentially 2,400 young lives directly impacted through our 9-week intervention program. But the real multiplication happens in the ripple effects: every young person who chooses resilience over substance use becomes a living example for their peers. 

John Hassan from Cocklebay captured the essence of what we’re building: “Mental illness is not madness, but it can be curable. One advice I would give to young people in my community is to be firm, be decisive and say NO to harmful drugs… Drugs is not a solution to any problem.” 

This isn’t just education, it’s transformation. These community champions aren’t just delivering our curriculum; they’re living it, adapting it, and taking ownership. 

The Revolution Begins

The training is complete, but the journey has just begun. These community champions will now recruit young people each from their communities for our full 9-week Brave Heart intervention. We’ll provide ongoing technical support and supervision to ensure quality delivery. 

But beyond the formal program structure, something more organic and powerful is happening. We’ve planted seeds of possibility in communities where hope had been scarce. We’ve given voice and tools to people who knew the problems intimately but didn’t know they had the power to be part of the solution. 

The revolution in Sierra Leone’s approach to youth mental health and substance use prevention won’t be led by international experts or government officials. It will be led by neighbors like Alfred, Aminata, Fatima, and John, ordinary people who have decided to do extraordinary things for the young people in their communities. 

Change doesn’t always come through grand gestures. Sometimes it comes through quiet courage, patient training, and the simple but profound act of one person deciding to care enough to get involved. In Funkia-Portor and Cocklebay, that decision has been made times over.

The brave hearts are beating. The change has begun. 

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