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Native Kenyan Rev. Francis Ndolo (left), who graduated from WIU-QC in 2010 with his master's degree in counselor education, is working to educate his fellow Kenyans about the need for mental health counseling services in his home country.
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Leslie O'Ryan (center, with glasses), a professor in the WIU-QC counselor education department, visited Ndolo in Kenya. She is pictured here with children living in a Kenyan orphanage.
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Ndolo (second from left) is pictured here with students from Eastern Kenya University (where Ndolo is a Catholic chaplain) on a pilgrimage in Kenya.
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WIU-QC Alum Establishes Mental Health Counseling in Kenya

September 2, 2015

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MOLINE, IL — Native Kenyan and Western Illinois University-Quad Cities alumnus the Rev. Francis Ndolo has travelled a long way from Moline, IL, to Kitui County, Kenya. But he hasn't forgotten the skills he learned while a student in the WIU-QC Department of Counselor Education.

Ndolo, who earned his master's degree in counselor education from WIU-QC in 2010, has made counseling available to Kenyans who, otherwise, have few resources to pursue such mental health care. In addition, he is working to establish obtaining counseling as part of Kenyan health care. Not only is Ndolo providing counseling services and forming a rehabilitation center, but he also hosts a weekly radio program that helps to promote awareness about counseling and create a social environment that is more accepting of mental health disorders and treatments.

While living in a parish of the Catholic Church, Ndolo provides free counseling services to the local population.

"I just want to help people," he said. "For the majority of individuals here, their health care is self-funded; they have no insurance."

For Ndolo, it has been an interesting challenge to incorporate the Western methods of counseling and apply them to the cultural practices of Kenyans. One way that Ndolo has accomplished this has been to incorporate spiritual methods of counseling.

"They cannot…understand how hallucinations and nightmares are not the work of evil spiritual entities," he noted.

For Ndolo, most of the difficulties he has faced involve translating medical terms and definitions from English to his native language.

Promoting Awareness via the Airwaves

Over the last year, Ndolo has hosted a one-hour, weekly radio program in his native language. People are able to call in during the program and ask Ndolo questions, and topics range from the effects of trauma to depression.

Ndolo uses this platform to explain these mental health topics, how they can be treated and to inform his community about mental health care. Ndolo is also involved with the strategic plan for the social engagement of a new rehabilitation facility.

"I have pushed for a drug rehabilitation program in the county through the church," he said.

Ndolo's main responsibility for the strategic planning for this facility is to design a rehab model suitable for the local population.

When Leslie O'Ryan, a professor in the WIU-QC counselor education department, visited Ndolo, she assisted in teaching the rehab department personnel about what rehabilitation is and the general principles of establishing a rehabilitation program.

"Fr. Ndolo's significant professional efforts and achievements will have a major impact on the development of the mental health counseling profession in Kenya. He makes a difference in the world. I am amazed at all he does," she said.

Tragically, a terrorist attack at Garissa University College in Kenya last April took the lives of 147 people.

"As a Kenyan citizen, I am horrified and angry that human beings can do something like that to fellow humans," Ndolo noted.

Ndolo added, with traumatic events such as the recent attack, it is important to have trained counselors in Kenya. Short- and long-term problems have appeared in survivors, families, first responders, hospital staff and many more individuals, he said.

On his radio show, Ndolo talked about the attacks for three weeks to enable individuals to discuss how they were affected mentally. Many family members from the attacks called in to Ndolo's radio show, and several people who called also discussed past trauma-inducing events and these events' effects on them and their loved ones.

Ndolo noted he is thankful that, while in graduate school, he completed a unit about trauma with O'Ryan to prepare him for such an event.

"Fr. Ndolo has used his counseling-education skills to improve his native country's acceptance and understanding of mental health," O'Ryan said. "Due to his work, those in Kitui County, Kenya, now have access to counseling and have the beginnings of a new cultural acceptance of mental health care."

Ndolo is currently pursuing a doctorate at Mount Kenya University.

For more information about the WIU-QC Department of Counselor Education, see www.wiu.edu/coehs/qc/cned/.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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