Breaking the silence: Zimbabwean youth leader calls for urgent investment in mental health
The tragedy exposed a stark reality: Many young people facing mental health challenges had nowhere to turn for support.“I saw the gap. I saw the need” she recalled. “As a young person, I realised that we needed youth-driven solutions for youth mental health challenges.”Today, the 26-year-old PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge leads the Ndinewe Foundation, a Zimbabwean organization that provides young people with locally and culturally relevant mental health resources, peer support and education. Ndinewe translates to I am with you, in English.
© KB Mpofu
UN Youth Leader Tanatswa Amanda Chikaura, 26, is the founder of the Ndinewe Foundation.
“Our main goal is to ensure that young people have the resources and the tools they need to not only support themselves, but to support other people as well, and to ensure that these tools and resources are locally and culturally relevant” she said.For example, through community initiatives, including the sport and mental health intiative, the foundation’s main focus is to integrate mental health education into sporting activities for children and young people.From local to global On Friday, Chikaura will join 14 other UN Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals at UN Headquarters for One World, One Game, One Goal, a youth-focused event held ahead of the FIFA final matches that will spotlight the role of sport in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals.The gathering will also launch a new youth mental health campaign aimed at encouraging young people around the world to speak openly about mental health, seek support when they need it and look out for one another.For Chikaura, whose own work combines sport with mental health education, the campaign reflects the same belief that has guided her advocacy from the beginning: that young people themselves must be at the centre of designing solutions.
