My name is Wanjengu Mike from Tinada Youth Organisation. In Tinada I serve as the Programme Coordinator. Tinada was privileged to be funded by Voice in the year 2018 to 2019. The project was about creating mental health awareness. My moment happened during the world mental health awareness day that was held in Vihiga county. In Vihiga county there are many cases of mental health conditions among the people, especially the youth, but many people did not have the correct information on mental health. Most of them attributed it to very many myths and misconceptions.
As we created awareness in Vihiga county, they came out in numbers to celebrate world mental health day, and that resulted in more people getting awareness on mental health conditions and where to access health for mental health. This has impacted the community because from around a number of 30 patients a month in the psychiatric unit in Vihiga county, we have seen an increase to about 300 patients in Vihiga county. This, for me, was my moment during that period. This was my moment because people actually came out to celebrate world mental health day. A day that normally would be forgotten and not celebrated or commemorated. But now even the community recognises the day and as a result, they continue to celebrate that day every year. Even this year we are planning to support them in celebrating that day.
