One in four Rwandans suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, nearly one in every six adults in Rwanda suffers from depression, according to statistics from Partners in Health, which explains why different organisations have, over the years, scaled up their efforts to raise awareness on mental health. One such organisation that has been spearheading several campaigns on mental health awareness is Sana Initiative. Founded in 2018, the initiative has been building emotional consciousness in communities for individuals and institutions to value mental health through psycho education, community work, research and therapy. After collaborations with different organisations on Mental Health Day last month, its founder Laure Iyaga, decided to take the initiative campaign to the public. “For years, the focus has been about creating awareness on mental health but we wanted to trigger the conversation to the masses to tell us what they understand about mental health, what it means to them and their message to the public,” she says. Laure Iyaga, the founder of Sana Initiative. Courtesy photos The campaign dubbed #Isanamitima kicked off early this month on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, with a cross section of people sharing messages, experiences and thoughts around mental health. “By hearing from the public, it would enable us to guide them better when we understand their needs. But until we reach everyone, our goal cannot be met, this is why we are involving a cross section of people all over the country, people in the informal sector, students, professionals, influencers, everybody to share their views on social. To take the campaign a notch higher, we are doing a series of radio shows to create more awareness,” Iyaga adds. Participants share Naswiru Shema, a student and mental health advocate was one of the first people to join the campaign. His experience in advocacy and realising how young people struggle with mental health challenges was proof of the essence of the campaign. “Like many Rwandans, at first I didn’t understand that mental illness was an issue in this country because when you are dealing with something, you don’t seem to see it. However, after seeing mental health hashtags trending on twitter, I realised the need for us to talk about it more and so I organised conversations with other young people to share their experience. Over time I learned that it is an issue we take for granted. “I believe that for people to solve a problem, they need to understand that it exists. It needs to start with awareness after which people will be invested in it, continue to research about it and help other people in their communities,” he says. Jackie Kalisa, a participant in the campaign. People who are not on social media, Iyaga says, have not been left out as the campaign has attracted volunteers to share their views. Florence Nyirabavakure, a resident in Musanze, learned of the campaign on social media and it resonated with what she learned in school. This, for her, has been an opportunity to become a mental health advocate and a volunteer for the campaign. “I attended my secondary level in Ngororero District and we had a school club ‘Ruhuka’ that preached about taking care of our mental health. “Having learned the impact that mental health awareness can have on communities, I joined the campaign and convinced my neighbours to join. I asked them questions on what they know about mental health and asked them to share their ideas on what they think about it,” she says. The general stigma around mental health, as well as the lack of understanding around how to support those suffering with it inspired another participant, Jackie Kalisa, to take on the mantle. “The society we live in today lacks a listening ear, almost everybody around you is judgmental, blaming you or calling you all sorts of names yet we all deal with our emotions differently. Personally, I have seen and worked with people that deal with mental problems, and it’s very unfortunate that our culture doesn’t give this issue much attention while many do not understand mental health. Florence Nyirabavakure joined the campign from Musanze. “This issue is real and the sooner we offer a helping hand and create more awareness the better. Talk to someone if you can, don’t be quick to judge, remind them how worthy they are, keep encouraging them to love themselves and inspire them,” Kalisa says. The vision for Sana is to help people that are around today to prepare for the next generation by unlearning old habits and learning new habits of being healthier to secure an environment that is safe and healthier for the future. “With time we want to extend the conversations across borders and make it an African thing, so people can be able to share messages in their local languages and own it, because we know that in as much as we talk about stigma, the population is in a better position to fight it,” Iyaga says.
