Co-creating mental-health tools for adolescents

UNICEF Rwanda

An HCD-informed process that translated adolescent mental-health insights into culturally grounded tools for dialogue, trust and support.

Role

Creative Lead / Art Director

LOCATION

Rwanda

FORMAT

Participatory Design Process, Prototyping & IEC Toolkit Development

Challenge

Adolescents in Rwanda face growing mental-health challenges shaped by stigma, limited access to care and cultural silence around emotional well-being. UNICEF Rwanda, the Rwanda Biomedical Center and the University of Rwanda needed a national communication package that could make mental health relatable, accessible and culturally resonant while building a shared language of empathy among young people, caregivers and community leaders.

Approach

Using Human-Centered Design, we worked alongside adolescents, caregivers and stakeholders to research lived experiences, map coping behaviors and co-create prototypes across rural, urban and refugee contexts. Ideas were developed through workshops, then refined with policymakers and mental-health experts into Musangizanye—a multi-audience system of comics, activities, mood tools, audio stories, guides and peer-group games.

Co-creating the Toolkit in Kigali

Facilitated by the University of Rwanda, the workshops brought adolescents and caregivers into the toolkit’s development process. I helped design the workshop activities and joined the supervision team, ensuring participants’ experiences directly informed the final resources.

From Co-creation to National Use

Consultation with government and sector partners helped turn participants’ ideas into a resource that could be adopted within Rwanda’s wider adolescent mental-health system.

Outcome

The process produced Rwanda’s first national adolescent mental-health communication package, rooted in empathy, co-creation and collective healing. Its connected tools give young people and the adults around them practical ways to build emotional literacy, open safer conversations and strengthen trust and support.