By Pempho Nkhoma

Blantyre, March 10, Mana: Mental Health Awareness Hub (MeHA) has organized a mental health awareness campaign on Friday March 14 at Blantyre Secondary School (BSS) to promote mental wellbeing among individuals.

The campaign targets students and teachers at BSS and will be held under the theme; Healthy minds, happy lives.

Founder of MeHA, Bright Kanola, said the hub always hold online awareness sessions and thought of organising a physical session to accommodate others that have no access to online platforms.

“Many people are not aware that mental health issues cover wide range of areas, including depression, substance abuse and addiction, stress, anxiety, gambling addiction among others. This event will cover some areas mentioned above to sensitize people to know when and where to seek for help,” he said.

Kanola therefore urged the general public to be open and seek support whenever they struggle with mental health issues like, stress, depression and having thoughts of committing suicide.

“Reach out to a trusted friend, family member, or mental health professional, and let them help you find the strength to keep going. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness but strength,” he added.

Other activities like quiz and drama will be used to deliver mental health information to the attendees.

One of the speakers for the event, Funny Chapalapata, urged people to patronize the event saying prioritising mental health discussing sessions is of high importance for a health mind and happy living.

“We will tackle topics like; substance use disorders directed to the students and stress related disorders directed to workers. This is because we have seen that due to stress workers in different institutions have not been able to perform productively. Mental health awareness provides chance to identity stressors and help those stressed with good coping skills to ensure quality outcome,” she said.

Other speakers that will have presentations on different topics include Elizer Kanyika, Willard Waile, Pilirani Kumundayayi, Alice Phiri, Glory Benson, Rosemary Mkumba,

This is the second physical mental health awareness session organised by MeHA, the first one was held in October 2024 at Ngumbe Secondary School in Chileka.