 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. Mental health has become one of the major issues being addressed globally. Roslyn, why do you think mental health has become such a big topic currently? Yeah, okay, thank you so much. Mental issues becoming a major topic because of what we are experiencing right now. In the recent past, there has been high rate of suicide, there has been high rate of killings, there has been high rate of gender-based violence, among other issues. This is sending people into early deaths, leaving our young children as orphans. They end up suffering. So many men are passing through gender-based violence, suffering silently, dying silently. Our women are being battered by their husbands. They are not coming out to talk about it because if they talk about it, what will the people say about us? So they are suffering silently. We wake up the following day, this person is killed. In our family, you realize that issues around gender-based violence between father and mother is also coming back to the children. You wake up in the morning, children are killed. So all this is coming because of the mental issues that come as a result of stress and depression. So stress and depression are the major issues? Stress and depression is the major issue where someone is suffering silently, starts developing stress and because he or she cannot talk about it, it develops into depression. When it turns into depression, this person doesn't see the importance of living. He decides to commit suicide. He decides to kill those people around him or her. The innocent are also killed. Who are the children? And how come it gets to these extremes? What are the certain things that affect someone so that they can say that they are depressed? The major issue here is people are not able to speak out. People are not able to come out and talk about what they are undergoing. And what makes us not to come out to talk about it? What is behind our minds? What will people say if I say? So that is the major problem. What will people say? Yes. And that is a terrible thing. And that is a very terrible thing. And that is a very terrible question. If we forget saying that, what will people say? That one will lead us to live our lives until God's time. Yes. And so what inspired you to touch on such a sensitive issue? I was living with my aunt sometimes, but not long ago. And this hand of mine was passing through gender-based violence. She was retired and the husband started abusing her after retirement. There is a time since I was staying there. In fact, I was like a savior in her life because anytime the husband would come back home, the only thing he would do is just to abuse this lady. But now this is the husband who is, and I'm going to come home because I'm not going to live with her. So, and if I, I tried to, because I was the only person around, I was the only person around who had children, I was the only person around who had children because I knew what would happen. He was not that friendly and like Kitambo. This lady attacked me. There is a time when I would go to the house and say, I'm not going to live with this lady. My body is not going to live with her. No, this is, I'm not going to live with her, I'm not going to have children, but I'm going to live with her because of the person I'm going to live with. So, there is a time when I was a child, not once or twice in my life, and I was a child, I was a child, but I had no respect. The only thing you can do is either wake up and do it or I'm going to wait for him to, I'm going to pick up the children and see them so that they call. There is a time I also tried to, yes, because I was trying, so which kind of life is this? And I remember very well, this was so painful. So what was she meaning? So I was, personally, I was so affected. Some of them are even outside the country, but they were so affected. Through that experience, so you decided, let me say something that will help resolve this? Actually, I didn't start immediately. It took me long, and I never imagined that at some point I would come up with such a thing. But along the way, I had a dream that I was talking to some women who had sad face, but then after talking to them, they wore a smiling face. And that's what pushed me to start. So let's talk about the fight depression and stress your organization. What is it all about? And what does it do? Fight depression and stress is a community-based organization that focuses on issues around mental health, which comes as a result of stress and depression. Those issues, some of them are the ones that I'm talking about, gender-based violence. Once you are abused, you are psychologically affected. You can't do anything. It comes as a result of stress and depression. We also talk about issues around early marriage and early teenage pregnaz. Most of them, when they get into early marriages, because, for instance, these women who are like what you talk about, you can imagine when they are a child, when they seek love outside, maybe to the young boys, they need to take that warmth. If you see your father is coming and you are running away, then there is no warmth. So you have to seek warmth from outside. So, when you are pregnant, then it leads them to early marriage. It is mostly believed that people who deal with mental health issues are doctors and practitioners who are psychological practitioners. So is it something you trained for or how did you get into this? I'm a social worker. I've done social work and community development to diploma level. What I'm doing at the community is okay with me. But then tackling issues around mental health, I'm talking out of experience. I'm talking it from the bottom of my heart and I'm passionate about it. Can you just create something positive out of the challenge that you undergo? It's through the challenge that I went that made me come up with fight and depression and stress with like-minded persons. And because I didn't take a counselling psychology as a course, then it has given me an opportunity to go back to class and sit for that counselling and psychology. So currently you're studying? I'm studying. I'll be sitting for the exams in March. And what activities are you involved in as a fit? We have several activities to conduct. Circles of healing. Circles of healing, we run it in prisons. We reach out to women in prisons. We offer psychosocial support in enclosed spaces like prison, children's home. We offer psychosocial support to women in prison. When we talk to women in prison, we realize that for the case in Mekwambia, the experience I had, this woman in the fight to you has been working. But because of the respect, is it the other women in prison? And we go to prison for free? No. We offer psychosocial support to women in prison. We ask the parents to be patient. We talk to them with our psychosocial support to make them reintegrated. And then we have worked a lot to ease our stress. This is a program we run in schools and to young people. So, we want to encourage people to come and be at this time for everything. We want to discourage them from going into early sexual relationship, because working at early sexual relationship is the most likely to get into gender-based violence. They have not processed whatever is happening around them. Exactly. So, when I find a future, but we have the power in education, so that's what we do in school and work a lot to lose our stress. We have community engagement, where we have women and men who come together to program at the table banking. We go and look for the opportunity to go to school, to gather the money, and to go to school in Cologne, where we have interest. But later on, we have interest. At the end of the year, we go to school, and we will ask our family to go to Kizore. So, at least, it's a good thing. This woman has a message to go to school in Cologne, and to go to school in Cologne, and to go to school in Biasara. We have a community engagement, we have a work to a healthy mind. We do short walks to sensitize people on the importance of speaking out, on the importance of having a good mental health, on the importance of dealing with their challenges, and discouraging that society is never an option. And so is killing. And do you have partners who you're working with, maybe doctors who also help when it comes to such extreme cases as the issue with your aunt? Yes. As I said before, I've done social work and community development. There are cases where you can't deal, but those that are complicated, we refer them to psychologists. Psychologists on the board that help us, we do referrals. We partner with different organizations in our activities. We've done suicide prevention day. We are part of CSO, Busea CSO. So we reach out to different organizations. We do these awareness together. Like as we speak right now, we are organizing for mental health. We are targeting to reach out to 500 youths at Lupe University. We want to reach out to those youths and encourage them, but the only thing they can do now is education. I think it's important for us to be able to do that as well. I agree. Yes, I agree. But not into early sexual relationships. I'm a drags and all that, because when I think about my future, they end up losing their lives differently. Apart from the physical meetings, do you have other platforms where you reach out to your audience? Yes, we have social media, we have Twitter, we have Facebook, we have LinkedIn. Give us the handles. Roswandaki, fight depression and stress. Roswandaki is my personal page. Then we have fight depression and stress on Facebook. Then we have Twitter, fight depression and stress. LinkedIn, we have fight depression and stress. We also have Roswandaki. Interesting. So how has the journey been since you started Facebook? It has not been a walk in the park, but I believe it was passion. I think God wanted me to do that, because to make it a challenge is to swing it. Of course dealing with issues around mental health and you are not specialists, you can easily learn into depression by yourself. Because you get to hear some sad stories and you're like, oh wow, so much better. But then at the same time, you don't want to be a victim, you don't want to be a victim, you don't want to be a psychologist. You need purpose. And I was okay with that because I told them that we create challenges, we create something positive out of the challenges that we undergo. I encourage the power of speaking out, not because it helps me to relieve but it helps other people to realize that if I speak about this person who tells me, Ros, you don't have papers for psychology, why are you doing this? He needs to realize that we are creating awareness and we are saving souls. And we are also creating that platform for him or her to come and help this vulnerable person. There is a time a guy passed by our office. This guy from... He was going to commit suicide. But because of this office, the word fight, depression and stress, this guy is alive today. He went to the office, he chose me when I'm talking, he was there, he was there, he saw me and said, Madam, sit and commit suicide. He told me that he had a baby. And speaking of that, not many men are able to speak out. Many men want to be silent. That is what they say, you have to be strong according to the community standards. As a man, you have to be strong. How do you deal with that? Actually, you know what we are... The creating awareness is actually creating something positive. Men are speaking out. They are also championing others to speak out. And as we speak right now, that is a man who came... that is a man who came to speak. And he said, he saved himself because he had a baby. His wife had a baby. And now he is struggling for the kids. So, as we speak right now, one of the women, one of the men, she was talking to him. She was talking to him. Because she was talking to him because of the information, the importance she was talking about. So what can you tell us is the importance of talking out. You know, this person, when you are going to commit suicide, you are going to have to go through a lot of problems because you have a baby. If you have a baby, you are going to have to go through a lot of problems. She or he cannot think. This is a bad thing. It is normal for me to go through a lot of problems. No body. But because you are going to have to go through a lot of problems, in a lot of cases, in a lot of cases, you may have to be a duck. This person can never think. Yeah. I tell you, I am a balloon. I had a balloon when my police got here, a balloon, a balloon, a balloon that was in the air then it was in the bus. Yeah. Then people would throw it around the city. So, when I met on the train, I came and the police of the balloon came there. They didn't know it. Then you get to start understanding that oh what what? So when we speak out When we speak out We can realize they're not alone There are people who pass through a lot than we are way Me wanna pay an example He's in pain I'm telling you, I'm sick because what you've seen, so whenever you have a problem and you feel you have a problem, when you speak out, you are much better off, what you mean you can't speak out. And this means that mental health, it's not a problem, it's a spiritual thing, especially in the African culture. So have you encountered such people who are so resistant to accepting that this is a mental condition and I need to seek help? Yeah, we have. And just to give an example, there is a time I was talking to brother-brother riders here in America, and one of them came and said, Madam, I don't want to be depressed by this year. I said, oh really? Yeah. I said, I'm fine. But it's okay. I'll say, I'm sick. I'm sick. I'm sick. I'm sick. It didn't take even a man. I didn't know that I was sick, but he never died. Yeah. He's a, he's a, I don't know why, I'm not sure if he's going to fall or not. So, what we're going to believe here in Kwanbaa is it's, it's a suicide, it's a suicide, it's a suicide. It's a suicide. It's a suicide. It's a suicide. It's a suicide. It's a suicide. It's a suicide. It's a suicide. But now they have forgotten that when I'm depressed and I decide to commit suicide, then that's what I have, I have created in my, in my lineage. No. So we have to prevent these things so that it's not, it doesn't follow the lineage. See? Yeah. So it's not actually tradition. It's, I don't believe it's tradition, but it's something that people are creating themselves. And are there any challenges you faced since you started and until now? There are so many challenges. When we started, what were the few small angels we've come? And I had to avoid some cases. Because me, when I was a psychologist, they are giving me tough cases. And by that time, you studied, you don't know any psychologist. You know, it's when you start connecting. When you start to connect, it's when you come as a spark. You know, it's when you start to get excited. Very prolific. Yes, yeah. So, I was scared, I was in Kamali, I was in Neweza. But then, with the time, I was able to avoid some cases. I didn't have any cases. Because I started to get emotional. So, I don't want to avoid cases. But it's easy for me to get emotional. So, where do you see yourself as feeds in the future, maybe 5 to 10 years? We see ourselves very far. Because in Kamali, we studied on nothing. We cut it to the organization. I was doing it in the community without knowing where I was heading. Or where we were heading. After some time, there was an advertisement by the border hub. That they want to have these youths who are championing for something in the community and they are not well known. And they happened to set an interview and I was among the winners who were. Among the 12 winners, the final one to undertake a six-month course. Yeah, and we were awarded as a promising community initiative. And actually, it's promising because so far, personally, I've won an award as a peace champion, an international award. An organization has won an award as a promising community initiative. Recently, I won an award as audacity, I don't know. I've won several awards, but one international year. So, you aim to take feeds in Bali? In Bali Sana, and recently, I was one of the 15 organizations that were taken to Kisumu for capacity building. And now we are coming back to implement. So, even in one year's time, when you come back, you get feeds very, very far. And even we intend to change the name. I don't know if you know the name of the child. I don't know if you know the name of the child. And then, we are going to work with them. So, we are going to feed, fight depression and stress. But then, when we come back, we are also into agriculture. We have identified some women, when you are under go gender-based violence, you are going to learn how to fight depression and stress. You have to sit with him or her down to explain. So, very soon, we shall be changing the name. Feeds will remain the same. But of course, we shall have different meaning of feeds, but still under mental health. What meaning is that? Not that I'm going to join you next time, to give you another different name to name your body. I'm going to join you next time. Okay, okay. I'm going to join you next time. I love you, Nini. You love fire? I'm going to join you next time. That's true, that's true. And about poverty. This has been an issue because of lack of employment, especially for the youth. What can you say to the youth members who are out there, who maybe do not have jobs? Mama, they like that. How are they going to share the benefits because maybe they are stressed or depressed? I want to tell them something. There is enough space in the sky for everybody to fly. I never knew there is a space in the sky until when I studied feeds. It's a challenge. I'm not a teacher. I'm not a teacher. I'm a teacher of food. I'm a teacher of food. I'm not a teacher. I'm just saying that maybe I didn't know, but God, he came up with this one. We can create something positive out of the challenges that we undergo. This challenge is going to be a win and international award. Thank you so much for what you have just shared. I'm sure there are people who are depressed, they cannot move, they cannot do anything. But through your testimony, they have seen now a male level that we need to speak out. So thank you so much. And may God enderly quenua as feeds so that you can reach out to magnitude. Thank you. Maybe just to add on that, anybody or any organization that is maybe hearing us, Sisi Tukomashinani, we are ready for partnership, let them come so that they also support us to make a value. Wow. Yes. Thank you. There is enough room and space in the sky for everybody to fly. Do you have what it takes? Do you feel you need to go up to the sky? Don't let depression put you down. Don't let stress put you down. All you need to do is stand up, shout out, and speak out. Because this is it. Welcome to the family and the generations to come. This has been Youth in Action. I am Nyong'ueso Greenies.