A charity founded by a Borth nurse and Upper Corris clinician to help people with mental health issues in Zanzibar has won a Welsh Government grant.

Ruth Jennison, who works in Bronglais Hospital’s Enlli Ward, and Mike Greenwood, who lives in Upper Corris and was a former manager and clinician in mental health in north Wales, established ZAMHS in 2014 and have made a series of visits to Zanzibar, as well as taken part in several fundraisers over the years.

With Ruth planning the latest of her fundraising swims at Bala Lake on 1 June, there was another boost for the charity after it was confirmed that ZAMHS had won funding from the Welsh Government’s Wales Africa grant scheme.

That money will to help with education efforts in Zanzibar, as well as fund a visit to Pemba, a sister island, to look into mental health care there.

Ruth said: “After Mike’s very hard work on the application, we are very thankful to be in receipt of a generous grant from the Welsh Government, Wales Africa grant scheme, administered by WCVA.

“This money will be used to support our Zanzibari partners in their Mental Health Education programme in Zanzibar in training traditional healers, healthcare workers, teachers and the public to recognise symptoms and refer or respond appropriately. No doubt lives will be saved and a huge amount of needless suffering eliminated.

“It will help greatly to reduce stigma which we still have to deal with even here in the UK.

“Also, thanks to the grant we will be going to Zanzibar’s sister island Pemba to help assess the situation there in terms of mental health care.

“People there appear to fare worse than the Zanzibar main island.

“Juma was chained up as he suffered from acute psychosis and was a danger to himself and others. With treatment now he is back with his family and functioning normally again.”

Ruth, who also gave a presentation in Enlli Ward about the charity’s work, said that important work will run alongside the other work of ZAMHS in helping support the Zanzibar Psychiatric Association to help those with mental health problems out of poverty and provide them with a way to support themselves.

To help raise money, Ruth has taken part in a series of swimming challenges locally and will undergo a 1.5 kilometre swim in Bala Lake on 1 June.

Anyone who would like to sponsor Ruth or learn more about the charity can email Ruth on [email protected] or go to the website at www.zamhs.co.uk.