Khamisi Musanje - Uganda
Attending the 2019 ACBS world conference in Dublin, still gives me chills to date. It’s a couple of months ago but memories seem fresh. Special thanks to the ACBS community for the generosity that saw some of us attend such an event which would otherwise not been possible without your support. As an award winner, I am grateful to the developing nations committee and the entire leadership at ACBS. Special thanks to Emily N Rodriguez, and Roscoe Kasujja.
At the conference
Warmth, kindness and love is what welcomed me to Dublin. As a first timer, everything seemed new, exciting and confusing at the same time. I allowed myself to feel the experience mindfully, noticing every detail while maximizing every opportunity. Thanks to the ACBS staff that supported me all the time. For the pre-conference workshop, I purposely attended pro-social facilitated by David Sloan Wilson, Paul Atkins, Silva and Wiser, although occasionally, I would sneak into Russ Harris’s sessions. The pro-social team was very amusing, brilliant and educative. I passionately loved the pro-social matrix because it seemed so obvious while at the same time new.
Beyond the pre-con, all presentations were interesting. I suffered the madness of running from one session to another to be able to deal with the temptation. The session chaired by Frank Bond that had presentations on ACT in the workplace was a perfect match. I got lots of insights on how to apply ACT in the workplace as an organizational Psychologist. I also made a poster presentation at St. Patrick cathedral (where religion met science).
Beyond content covered, networking was part of my greatest benefits. I built myself a rich network that is supportive to date and my life has never been the same again. Not forgetting the follies.
Post conference
Upon returning home, I embarked on a journey to popularize ACT in Uganda. I began with completing work I had presented on the poster “ACT for nurses in Uganda”. Partnering with Nic Hooper, Roscoe Kasujja and Taslim Tharani, we expanded the concept and shall be offering the first intervention to a group of 150 nurses in a private hospital in Kampala in January 2020. In September, I offered ACT and prosocial to a group of master card scholars at Makerere University and also advocated for inclusion of ACT in the Master’s curriculum. I am currently supervising 4 students researching psychological flexibility in organizations. In October, together with Roscoe, we entered into an understanding with Paul Flaxman and Ross McIntosh to adopt the ACT training for trainer’s manual in Uganda. We are currently leveling the ground but implementation will start in June 2020. I also have a plan to offer ACT to teachers, workers in a call center and to University students before end of next year. I am currently a member of the ACT for LAMIC group chaired by Claudette that aims at promoting ACT in developing contexts.
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