TINADA Youth Organization (TiYO)

About us

Tinada Youth Organization (TiYO) is a youth led community-based organization working in the western part of Kenya focusing on integrated mental health rights education and campaigns, child, youth and young women empowerment, sexual reproductive health and rights, disability inclusion and disaster risk-reduction.
TINADA exists to promote integrated health, education empowerment, human rights advocacy, disaster risk-reduction and economic empowerment among the marginalized youth and families leaving within the Lake Victoria Region through capacity building, support services, mentorship, demonstrated good practices and strategic networking.
We work on ending stigma and discrimination among persons suffering from mental health, neurological and substance use disorders and increasing their access to quality mental health care services, education opportunities, leadership involvement and respect for their human rights. We do this by integrating and coordinating holistic prevention, promotion, rehabilitation and support that aims at meeting mental health care needs with evidenced-based research.

We focus on five main pillars:
• Mental Health Prevention
• Therapies
• Rehabilitation
• Rights Advocacy
• Research
• Mental Health Financing Advocacy

Our mental health integrated program:
• Equips and empowers people with mental health disorders with the needed vocational/technical, workable and employable skills as well as soft and social skills
• Creates a technological environment for innovations and skills-development,
• Helps reduce stigmatization and discrimination of persons living with mental health illness including epilepsy and drug addicts and their families through brain awareness programs
• Puts mental health rehabilitative measures and programs in place that help bridge the gap between treatment and reintegration into communities
• Promotes mental health through community-based, culturally sensitive approaches that also create awareness about the need of tailored, community- based mental health preven­tion, therapies and rehabilitation among (political and traditional) leaders and decision makers (based on research) to stimulate community development and empowerment

In partnership with ON THE MOVE eV (a German NGO), we established the first center for mental health in western Kenya also known as HOME OF BRAINS which offers mental health awareness, education, prevention, therapies, rehabilitation and research. The center also offers free recreational activities to those challenged by mental health problems, school children and tertiary students. The center provides preventive mental health services at all levels to all persons, equips and empowers mental health patients with the needed vocational/technical workable and employable skills as well as soft and social skills to prevent relapse and re-integrate them into society, and helps to reduce stigmatization and discrimination of persons living with mental health illness and their families.

Douglas Otieno is the Executive Director of TINADA Youth Organization (TiYO).

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.