Mental Health Day 2018

The International Assistance Mission celebrates World Mental Health Day every year by holding different activities to raise public awareness about mental health in the community. On October 10th, 2018, we joined people across the globe in celebrating Mental Health Day. To celebrate, IAM, in close coordination with the Provincial Public Health Directorate, Education Directorate and Directorate of Culture and Information. This year’s global theme was “Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World.”

To raise awareness about mental health, IAM held a photo exhibition from October 10-11 in Herat province. At this exhibition, more than 80 artists and patients shared their pictures. This was the first time that artists in Afghanistan worked together to support World Mental Health Day, resulting in another way to help raise awareness about mental health. Their photographs communicated messages about mental health, particularly in regard to positive parenting, control of anger, family relationships, human rights, mental health, stigma, effects of conflict on a child’s mental health and the positive effects of positive parenting on prevention of mental health disorders on children.

We celebrated with representatives from the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), Ministry of Education (MoE), and the Ministry of Information and Culture (MIC) Herat departments; in addition, NGOs, civil society, artists, school teachers, students, families, and other community members. In total, more than 300 people visited the exhibition.

Representatives from the offices of MoPH, MoE, and MIC each shared positive feedback about the programme. Additionally, local media followed the event and broadcast it throughout Afghanistan.

You can check out the coverage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJF8Mt745mo. Would you like to find out more? Check out other aspects of our work in mental health here.