Media practitioners in the country have been urged to set the agenda of encouraging people to speak up whenever they face mental health challenges.
The call was made at a Media Interface meeting that marked the launch of the “Break the silence” campaign by Youth Advocacy Platform on Saturday in Lilongwe. The meeting was hosted by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Malawi.
Speaking at the meeting, Kingdom of Morocco’s head of mission to Malawi Naji Abdelkader said it is unfortunate to note that those committing suicide are mostly youths.
Abdelkader urged youths yo speak out on what they feel is putting them under pressure and disturbing their mental health.
“We should observe social media as this is the mode of communication that is being used so much by these youths. There is a need to encourage youths as well to face their challenges and share their problems with others as a problem shared ia half solved”, he said.
The meeting attracted several youths from various tertiary education centres who were trained to become Peer Supporters who can handle mental health issues at local level.
Executive director for Youth Advocacy Platform Elias Mambo attributed the rise in suicide cases in the country to the lack of opportunities or plartfoms for people to speak out on what they feel is disturbing their peace of mind.
According to Mambo, from January to April this year alone the country has registered 116 cases of suicide of which from the total amount 96% are men and the rest are women.
“The numbers are very frightening to say the least therefore we wanted the media to help us echo our Break The Silence campaign where we are encouraging people to speak out whenever they have mental health issues. We would like also to help the media frame messages in the right way whenever they are doing their stories, we would like to see stories that bring attention to the problems that are causing people to commit suicide and not only have the attention on the subjects themselves”, Mambo said.
The Break The Silence Campaign is focusing on mental health as well as gender justice and is being supported by Tilitonse Foundation, Comic Relief as well as UKaid.
