Young guns’ grassroots solution for mental health
Socio-economic situation leading to mental health issues.
Two young residents from Munsieville Extension 4, Dumisanie Ndlovu, 26, and Katlego Moribe, 27, are not running from the scourge of mental health issues in their community, but rather towards it.
The two young men, who both admit to suffering from anxiety, mild depression and stress, have taken to running to alleviate their emotional maladies. On May 16 they took their solution one step further and held a 5km and 10km Mental Health ‘Marathon’ in Munsieville in order to raise awareness.
“Many people in our community suffer from mild mental health issues but due to financial challenges they can not afford consultations with psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists, or to get psychiatric medicine. I am by no means a professional mental health practitioner but I discovered that running makes me feel better and from that, the idea for the fun run was born.
“What became clear after the fun run is that through socialising the runners could share and discuss their problems, which also helped,” explained Dumisani.
“The fun run was a success with about 30 people taking part. They all came back afterward and asked if we could host these runs more often,” said Dumisani.
His co-organiser, Katlego, detailed their future plans. “We want to host the fun runs at least once a month and maybe more informal sessions every fortnight. We are also hoping to take these fun runs to places like Soweto,” said Katlego.
Dumisani and Katlego are appealing to the community to help sponsor future events.
Anyone interested in taking part in the next fun run or becoming a sponsor can contact Dumisani on 078 194 8086.
Disclaimer: The News would like to encourage anyone who suffers from mental health issues to seek professional help on top of living a healthy lifestyle.
