CHIME Project visits Pirang Community Health Centre
By Sulayman Waan
The Community Health Interventions through Musical Engagement (CHIME) for Maternal Mental Health on Tuesday, Febuary 11, 2025 visited Pirang Community Health Centre in the Kombo East District, West Coast Region.
The forum attracted the Kanyaleng women, staff of the health facility and delegation of the CHIME Project at the Pirang Health Centre.
Kanyaleng are women in The Gambia who have fertility or child mortality problems. These women mostly come together in groups to perform collectively by singing and dancing, while playing pivotar role as traditional communicators in communities.
The visit aimed to investigate how culturally embedded musical practices through the Kanyaleng can support perinatal mental health in the healthcare facility. The delegation used this meeting to interact with health officers at the Pirang Health Centre, the community and the Kanyaleng.
The activity among other were possible following a major grant of over £2.8 million awarded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to the University of Roehampton and Stellenbosch University for a four-year research project.
In this regard, CHIME brings together researchers from the UK, South Africa, The Gambia, Lesotho, and Australia to investigate how culturally embedded musical practices can support perinatal mental health in three African countries.
In his welcome statement, Seedy Touray, Officer In Charge (OIC) of Pirang Community Health Centre commended the delegation from the CHIME Project for visiting the rural health facility.
He informed the delegation that the healthcare facility has several minor wards including the labour ward, EPD and so on.
“We have all the minor departments in the healthcare centre,” he noted.
He said the management of the health facility is working hand in glove with the ‘Kanyaleng’ group to disseminate health and medical information to the public.
“They are definitely helping us in sharing the needed information to the community members,” he stated.
However, Mr. Touray thanked all participants for attending the meeting.
Mariama Suwaneh, a ‘Kanyaleng’ member, expressed delight about the CHIME Project for supporting the health facility and the community of Pirang.
He said the team of Kanyaleng has benefitted from the Project through equipping them with the needed skills and knowledge on maternal health.
Nani Jajue, resident and head of ‘Kanyaleng’ group said the project has impacted the lives and livelihood of women and children in the community.
However, she appealed to the project to double its effort in supporting the health facility with the needed healthcare and medical services.
Poor maternal mental health is a major global health challenge. Up to one in five women experience mental health conditions during or after pregnancy, which not only affects a mother’s physical health and well-being but also increases her risk for birth complications and can negatively affect the health and development of her child. Mental health problems during the women perinatal period are more likely in case often face in these settings, such as poverty, migration, emergency and conflict situations.
Globally, there is an urgent need for accessible, community-based interventions to promote well-being and to prevent mental health conditions among mothers during pregnancy and after birth. CHIME (Community Health Intervention through Musical Engagement), which originated in the Gambia, West Africa, involves group-based participatory music-making, delivered by local women’s groups known as the Kanyeleng group within community settings.
Evidence has demonstrated that music and singing are effective in lifting mood, fostering social connections and allowing basic health messages to be communicated and shared, which are the three principles underpinning the intervention. In the Gambia, music-centred approaches hold particular promise due to the existence of a range of musical practices that specifically engage pregnant women and new mothers.
Following a period of formative work, the NIHR funding will allow the team to rigorously test the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and proposed mechanisms of action of the CHIME intervention in the Gambia, as well as adapting the intervention to additional new contexts in South Africa and Lesotho where participatory music is also an important part of culture and daily life.
SW/COB/13/02/25
