Take care of yourself

MSF, Ink Link, Louise Joor

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical organisation working in humanitarian contexts to provide assistance to populations in distress. In Belgium, MSF provided mental health support for asylum seekers. For this, MSF collaborated with the federal agency responsible for reception centres, Fedasil, and implemented a 2 year pilot project in 3 Fedasil-run centres in 2017-2018. MSF developed, through its work in reception centres, a holistic model of care aimed at improving the mental health and psychosocial support services for asylum seekers within the Belgian reception system.

Through this tool, MSF sought to create an alternative means of approaching mental health for asylum seekers. The aim is to raise awareness of different ways to cope with this period of limbo through specialised care, centre staff support and activities. We put forward the message that better understanding self-care and available options can be the key to sustained and improve wellbeing during the time that people spend waiting for a decision on their asylum status.

Ink link is a NGO using drawing and comics to support the work of NGO and intercultural dialogue. After visits to the centres, Ink Link supported MSF in the conception of this tool and one of its member, the illustrator Louise Joor, produced it based on the reality she witnessed. To best adapt it to the perception of asylum seekers, as well as the centre’s staff, the product was presented to them at the different stages of creation. The feedback was used to further make it understandable and relatable.

It is intended that this tool can be given to asylum seekers to read independently or to create a discussion with centre staff around their wellbeing.