Climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of floods, droughts, and storms across Africa, leaving anxiety, depression, and lasting trauma in its wake. The Wema project, a transdisciplinary research initiative, is studying the impact of extreme weather events on mental health in Africa. The project combines large-scale household surveys with personal stories and artworks to build a fuller picture of how extreme weather affects mental health.
The Wema project has trained 37 community members in South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, and Burkina Faso to create their own digital stories, transforming individual experiences into words and artwork as a form of evidence. These community researchers have shared their experiences and helped the research team find answers, explain results, and shape what happens next.
Collecting Stories
The community researchers were supported by community engagement teams based at local research institutes, who know the local languages and culture. Mental health professionals were also part of the team, providing support during and after the workshops. The researchers used a digital storytelling method, which involved creating a true, short story about a personal experience with extreme weather, accompanied by visual art.
Over five days, the research centre became a creative environment where people could reflect and share stories they had rarely spoken about before. They wrote, drew, painted, and finally recorded their illustrated stories on digital tablets to produce short videos. The stories captured moments of terror and loss, as well as the decisions, relationships, and acts of bravery and care that shaped how people coped in the aftermath of climate shock.
In South Africa, one community researcher, Balungile, remembered standing outside her home as a wall began to collapse, unable to reach her children. Years later, whenever dark clouds gather, she listens for sounds that will warn her if another wall begins to crack. In Kenya, another researcher, Jane, woke to the sound of shouting and bulldozers ploughing through shacks, as the government forced people to move from their homes along a flood-prone riverbank.
These stories capture aspects of life that surveys and interviews cannot, revealing how people living in vulnerable settings experience a profound event, how families and neighbours respond, and what remains after physical damage has been repaired. Instead of replacing scientific data, people’s stories add depth and meaning, helping researchers gain new perspectives and understand challenges to recovery that numbers cannot show.
From Stories to Shared Understanding
A month after the stories were created, the community came together again to watch each other’s videos and ask a different question: What do these stories reveal when we look at them together? Working in small groups, they wrote observations on sticky notes, grouped them by topic, and debated what they meant. They challenged each other’s interpretations and worked through simple but searching questions, identifying what communities need to better prepare for disasters, support people’s mental health, and recover.
The community researchers identified priorities for future research, policy, and practice, discussing how the findings could help shape policy, local planning, and communication. The Wema social scientists reviewed the digital stories to find where the community and academic findings aligned, where they differed, and what each perspective contributed to understanding the mental health impacts of extreme weather. As the findings are being shared at local brainstorming workshops, community researchers, academic researchers, health workers, and government representatives are working together to identify priorities for future research and practice.
The Wema project is funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by the Africa Health Research Institute at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The project’s approach to science, which recognizes community members as participants and collaborators, offers a different way of doing science, one better equipped to understand complex problems and develop responses grounded in people’s lived realities. By combining different forms of knowledge, the project aims to fill the knowledge gap and improve people’s lives, not just fill the pages of a scientific journal.
As the community researchers analyzed their stories, they identified common themes and patterns that emerged across different countries and contexts. They found that the impact of extreme weather events on mental health was often exacerbated by pre-existing social and economic vulnerabilities.
The community researchers also highlighted the importance of social support networks and community resilience in coping with the aftermath of extreme weather events. They noted that in many cases, it was the actions of family members, neighbors, and community leaders that helped individuals and families recover from the trauma and stress caused by these events.
Implications for Policy and Practice
The findings from the Wema project have significant implications for policy and practice in the field of mental health and climate change. The project’s emphasis on community-led research and digital storytelling provides a unique perspective on the experiences of individuals and communities affected by extreme weather events.
Leave a Reply