Caring Hands Center, an Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) promoting mental health awareness and the importance of a healthy mental wellbeing, has commended the response on the sessions that they conducted at the Lilongwe Music Festival (Lifest) last week.

Patrons in Lilongwe were treated to an exciting festival which saw some international artists including Jamaican reggae star, Chris Martin tackle mental health problems. Caring Hands partnered with Lifest having noticed that they share a similar interest in mental health wellbeing of Malawians. Caring Hands director, Christine Mhone said in an interview that from the theme of the festival “Mental health awareness, gender-based violence and stopping the stigma”, they offered mental health awareness content and support to individuals who needed it during the festival. “We were providing sensitisation information to victims of mental health, gender-based violence and stigma. We also provided counselling sessions at our booth during the festival through our mental health experts that were on the ground throughout the festival. “In these times of Covid, mental health issues are very serious.

At the festival we dealt with serious cases of mental health that have been overlooked mostly because the victims did not know what to do, they did not know where to seek help, they had fear of opening up to anyone about their issues and some did not understand that what they were going through was mental health or GBV. The other crucial thing was that most people are afraid to seek help because of the stigma that comes from the society once one is associated with mental health. For example the fear of cyber bullying after the issue goes viral. Some of the effects include; stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, partying too much than usual, suicidal thoughts, etc,” she said. Part of the audience at Lifest Mhone said surprisingly the number of sensitization meetings led to 99 percent counseling sessions due to the increase in the number of people seeking the services. “Initially the people would come to our stand without understanding what mental health is, with the aim of getting more information, then they will realise that they have been going through mental health or gender-based violence without actually realising it. This proves to us that there is more need for mental health awareness in the country,” she said.