 My name is Johanna Schubert. I'm the regional staff councillor for the Middle East and not North Africa. I'm part of the global staff welfare unit and what we do is we take good care of our colleagues to improve their well-being and to have an open ear and open door to our colleagues with whatever mental health issue concern they might have. What we do is we provide individual counselling. We also assist colleagues with referral services where they can get more long-term support but we also provide trainings on, for example, stress management or conflict resolution, self-care, well-being, relaxation techniques, whatever can help to handle stress better and improve our colleagues' well-being. Geographically, the MENA region is a hotspot of migration. Our colleagues try to help the migrants to have a better life or to either go home or go to another place. So they have a very high case load and they deal with very intense cases, a lot of traumatic stories. So of course they deal with it with a lot of compassion but this compassion can sometimes be a lot for themselves and sometimes this affects us. It affects our emotions and our well-being. So this is one issue. Another issue is also sometimes living in a conflict zone. Not all countries in the Middle East are peaceful at the moment, unfortunately. So living in a conflict zone means limited freedom of movement, of choices, of free time activities, of well-being activities. So this sometimes can also be very difficult to deal with and to stay healthy and well. Also living in an environment with limited security can also be quite challenging for our colleagues. You have to deal with impending attacks or incidents happening where you live or to the people that you deal with. So this can also be quite intense. Every 40 seconds statistically a person loses their life to suicide due to mental illness that could have been prevented. So we need to raise awareness to the issues of severe depression, of people feeling overwhelmed and overburdened with the challenges of life. Almost every person has a face in their life when they feel so burdened that they feel like they don't want to live anymore. It doesn't mean they want to die, it just means that they want peace, they want the problems to go away. And this is a point where we can help them. When people approach us, when they dare to tell us about those thoughts, then we can intervene. We can give them the support that they want and that they need in that severe situation. So this is very important. We need to destigmatize the topic of depression and suicide because in many cultures this is a taboo, right? People don't dare, they feel that they're being judged if they open up to somebody. But it's important to know that you're never alone. You can always turn to a professional and you will not be judged. That's very important. With a professional you can always talk anonymously and openly. It's super important to remember that you're never alone. No matter how isolated you feel, there is always someone to talk to. It could be a colleague, it could be a family member, a friend, a neighbour or a professional. Whoever you think you might trust. With a professional, as I said before, it's very easy to talk more openly because we don't judge, we listen, right? And we understand why people came to feel the way they do, why people develop the mental health issues that they have. So we are there to help, we are there to work together to make things better. And this is very important. As a matter of fact, we just launched a new website last month and you can visit that website, you will find a lot of videos, trainings, information material, some handbooks that you can use to improve your own well-being and develop a stress management plan for your life, which is always a good first step. And you can of course always contact us, the staff welfare office, SWO at IOM.int. If you have any concerns, any questions, or you just want to learn more about what we do. If anyone who sees this video is currently experiencing feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, or if you actually do have thoughts to end your life, please seek professional help. This is very important. Please turn through somebody for help, because help is available and you're not alone. This is very important.