Mental Health Awareness Initiative came in handy to the residents of Daveyton on Saturday, October 23, 2021. Save A Soul hosted this programme to create awareness and educate the community of Daveyton.
Founder of Save A Soul, singer and songwriter Macduran Makgabo explained that the purpose of the event was to start the conversation, create awareness, educate and support the community. The NGO is in a great partnership with one of the best leading organisations Lifeline South Africa.
The NGO was established in May 2021 after Makgabo had realised that people are dying in silence.
“The world we are facing is tough and we come across situations that are beyond our powers hence we need to have people we can talk to,” said Makgabo.
Psychology student, Lerato Sauhatsi explained that mental health refers to our emotional and psychological wellbeing, it is influenced by our life experiences and then mental illness encompasses a wide range of disorders.
“It is important that we talk about mental health and we need to get the fact that not only elders are affected by mental health children are also affected by it,” said Sauhatsi,
She stated, saying that the factors that are contributing to the mental health issues are childhood abuse, lack of resources, poverty, severe stress and unemployment.
Kids Haven’s Professional childcare and youth care worker, Social Worker and life coach, Annie Maboea who has mothered so many children especially those without parental care said, “Mental health is a problem and it affects children. For me, it starts from pregnancy, after knowing that you are pregnant what is your reaction? Children feel the rejection from within. By the time a child is born already he/she has felt the resentment. Children go through a lot in South Africa and we are neglecting them, every behaviour of a child has a meaning but we shy away from that,” said Maboea.
She further explained that the children’s emotional and mental wellbeing depends on the availability of parents.“We need to start accepting people for who they are and try not to judge but be empathic to them. We need to stop acting as if everything is okay.”
Mental health activist and survivor, Samu Fortunate Ludaka outlined the difficulties she faced as a teenager, losing her virginity from rape, being abused and neglected by her family.“Mental health is an issue and I can attest to that. Being raped at an age of 15 and not talking about it because of the toxic family I came from, affected me a lot and caused me to get myself into marriage at an early age and it didn’t help me because along the way I got divorced,” said Ludaka.
“My own biological mother called me by names, told me that I am useless and I won’t be anything in life. How do you survive that as a teenager? I got married early because I was trying to run away from a situation that could have been handled but I couldn’t handle it so I got myself into another problem,”
“What I am trying to say is that when you are not mentally stable there is no good outcome because the brain is not stable,” she added. The survivor of rape mentioned that it is wise to seek medical attention when you are traumatized so you don’t make avoidable mistakes and it also helps to take antidepressants. It is not an easy process but you need to invest in it for your own good.“It is up to you what you do once you have received the information,” she expressed.
Save A soul has nine dedicated, passionate and flexible team members who are eager to continue hosting such events.
Simphiwe Nkosi
