Understanding and addressing the mental health and well-being of primary homeless women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Main Supervisor: Mats Målqvist
Co-upervisor: Hannah Bradby, John Östh, Sibylle Herzig van Wees and Yemane Berhane

What is your educational background?
I have MSc in Integrated Clinical and Community Mental Health

Why did you apply to Womher interdisciplinary graduate school?
I have been interested in mental health, health policies, and service gaps ever since I finished my undergraduate education in Psychiatry. In particular, I am concerned from an equity perspective about the mental health and service gaps for a marginalized and politically invisible group of women, the homeless. My research interests include how to address and understand the mental health and well-being of primary homeless women and how to put their mental and essential health and well-being on the policy agenda as well as to better understand their lives and needs from the standpoint of health, sociology and anthropology. Ultimately, I hope to contribute significantly to the mental health of women in low-income countries, particularly in those that are vulnerable, and I believe the Womher research school is ideally suited for me.

Tell us more about your research project?
I am conducting a Ph.D. project to understand and address the mental health and well-being of homeless women. The study is interdisciplinary and employs several methods including participant surveys, photography, photovoice, body mapping, storytelling, observation, interviews, and policy analysis focused on Ethiopia’s urban environment.

What do you hope the impact of this project to be?
In my research, I plan to contribute to an increase in our understanding of how to address the essential health and well-being needs of homeless women. This will include understanding the lives and needs of homeless women in reproductive age groups, describing their current circumstances and demands, and contributing to the field of homeless women’s mental health epidemiology.

My affiliation
WOMHER- Uppsala University's center for women's mental health.
https://uu.se/forskning/womher/

SWEDESD - Research and learning for sustainable development and global healthy
Uppsala Universitet, Department of Women’s and Children’s Health
https://swedesd.uu.se/?languageId=1