\n<\/p>\n
Y<\/span>opougon, the largest of Abidjan\u2019s 13 communes, with a population of 1.5 million, is known for its entrepreneurial grit, its bubbly nightlife and, in pop culture, as being the birthplace of Francophone Africa\u2019s most popular comic character, Aya de Yopougon.<\/p>\n Beneath the bustle, it is also home to another taboo-busting pioneer: 49-year-old Adjoua Catherine Tano, a hairdresser who has spent two decades offering mental health advice, or just listening quietly as she cuts her clients\u2019 hair.<\/p>\n A school dropout who tried out as a bank cashier before becoming a hairdresser, Tano\u2019s resilience recently came in handy when speaking to a teenager worried about failing their exams. \u201cI told her: \u2018Don\u2019t think negatively,\u2019\u201d Tano said. \u201c\u2018Even if you fail, how can you think that you have failed in life?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Adjoua Catherine Tano.<\/span> Photograph: Fall Aicha\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Mental health remains a taboo subject in most parts of Africa, even though according to the World Health Organization more than 116 million people have mental health problems on the continent. Therapy is in critically short supply, with 1.4 mental health workers for every 100,000 people.<\/p>\n Across Black communities, hairdressers have become a safe space, especially in communities with little or no access to mental health care \u2013 or quality healthcare in general.<\/p>\n Bluemind Foundation, a nonprofit organisation working across Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Togo, has plugged into the hairdresser-client relationship through its Heal by Hair initiative. According to its founder, Marie-Alix de Putter, more than 400 hairdressers, including Tano, have been trained in the last two years to act as therapeutic first responders or \u201cmental health ambassadors\u201d, reaching more than 100,000 women. By 2030, de Putter hopes to reach more than 1,000 hairdressers in 20 countries.<\/p>\n It began with a love story that turned tragic. In 2012, while the de Putters were on a trip to her native Cameroon, her husband was murdered. She became a widow while she was four months pregnant. The case remains unsolved.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent my first night as a widow with my hairdresser,\u201d she said. \u201cShe was the one I trusted the most that night because you\u2019re just surrounded by people and you don\u2019t know who could have done this \u2026 so we had this relationship where every week she would come and do my hair [initially] at home and listen.\u201d<\/p>\n Inspired by her personal story, the foundation conducted a 2021 study across seven Francophone countries: 77 % of responders confessed to confiding in their hairdressers, and more than 90% of hairdressers said their clients had sought their counsel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just connected the trust that women are already giving to their hairdressers with the tools,\u201d she said. The first training took place in April 2022.<\/p>\n The programme is structured around a free, intensive three-day training with psychiatrists and mental health experts who teach the women about active listening, gender-based violence and signs of depression \u2013 as well as psychology theories. Afterwards, they are evaluated before receiving a certificate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe training went very well \u2026 I got my diploma and this,\u201d said another hairdresser, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Gueu, as she reached for a psychology textbook on a shelf in her salon in the working-class neighbourhood of Abobo.<\/p>\n <\/span>Th\u00e9r\u00e8se Gueu.<\/span> Photograph: Fall Aicha\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Over six months, trainees are supported through peer groups and access to a psychological referral system. When a client shares deeper troubles, hairdressers refer their clients to professional psychologists, or in cases of domestic violence, to the police. Many still bristle at the thought of either, citing financial and societal costs of doing so in a conservative region where one in three people live in extreme poverty.<\/p>\n Initially, funding for the programme came mostly from de Putter\u2019s savings, but private donors and agencies like France\u2019s Development Innovation Fund now chip in. Nevertheless, the resources remain small for the amount of work facing the foundation\u2019s small team of 17 paid staff and about 100 volunteers.<\/p>\n Their work has yielded stories of joy and healing: in Togo, one trainee hired someone who had been in a psychiatric hospital, offering social rehabilitation.<\/p>\n \u201cOften when you\u2019ve been sick and you\u2019ve been hospitalised, people say you\u2019re crazy,\u201d said de Putter. \u201cSo if you have a job and someone who accepts to train you, you get out of the taboo.\u201d<\/p>\n One hairdresser left her home because she was a victim of violence, but now helps people. In some communities, hairdressers say a few men have started reaching out for counsel too.<\/p>\n Among the hairdressers, there is a general sense of fulfilment over their emergence as a form of emotional support in their communities. \u201c[When] people come to explain their problems to me, it\u2019s a pride for me too because I know that I am an ear for someone,\u201d said Gueu. \u201cI tell myself that we all need someone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor many of these women, it\u2019s their first recognition as a leader in their community and a protector,\u201d said de Putter. \u201cThese women are saying to us: \u2018Before I was just doing hair, now I do healing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yopougon, the largest of Abidjan\u2019s 13 communes, with a population of 1.5 million, is known for its entrepreneurial grit, its bubbly nightlife and, in pop culture, as being the birthplace of Francophone Africa\u2019s most popular comic character, Aya de Yopougon. Beneath the bustle, it is also home to another taboo-busting pioneer: 49-year-old Adjoua Catherine Tano,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[3130,15671,15621,3807,1031,15672,1949,2187],"class_list":{"0":"post-26026","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-hairdressers","10":"tag-heath","11":"tag-issues","12":"tag-mental","13":"tag-stigma","14":"tag-tackling","15":"tag-west"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018The trust is already there\u2019<\/h2>\n