Published on: 20th October 2021
As part of Black History Month, we’ve been speaking to colleagues who are proud to be who they are.
Rugie Kamara, a parent and infant relationship practitioner at Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale early attachment service, has shared her story and what this year’s ‘Proud To Be’ theme means to her.
Originally from Sierra Leone, Rugie travelled to the UK when she was 25 and settled in Manchester where she trained as a mental health nurse and a health visitor. Today, Rugie supports families across Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale in building relationships with their babies and young children, and promotes the importance of parent and infant mental health in the community.
Throughout lockdown, Rugie continued to support families even when she couldn’t meet with them face-to-face. She offered phone and video calls, spoke on the early attachment service’s Facebook page for Infant Mental Health Awareness Week and signposted families to other helpful services.
On top of all of this, throughout the pandemic Rugie provided hot food to elderly people in the community once every two weeks, helped them with their shopping and collected their prescriptions – all outside of work in her own time. Her amazing work continues to provide invaluable support across Greater Manchester.
What does this year’s Black History month theme ‘Proud to be’ mean to Rugie? “I’m proud to be a part of British society, working with children and families, understanding cultural differences and supporting parents and their children to have a better understanding of the parent infant relationship, as well as the effect of perinatal mental health on babies and the family as a whole.”
More information can be found about Rugie and Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale early attachment service on the service’s Facebook group (@hmreas), as well as the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust website.
