From left to right: Fanelesibonge Ndebele, Thuli Madonsela, and Wenzile Madonsela-Msimanga, after Madonsela-Msimanga’s talk on World Mental Health Day. Photo: Twitter
The month of October is celebrated as World Mental Health Month, with World Mental Health Day specifically being celebrated on 10 October. Throughout the month, the Centre for Student Counselling and Development (CSCD) at Stellenbosch University (SU), in collaboration with other stakeholders, has been running a series of programmes aimed at raising mental health awareness.
On Thursday 10 October the CSCD commemorated World Mental Health Day by offering hand massages on the Rooiplein, as well as having information stands from Campus Health and Maties Gymnasium. They also hosted a talk by businesswoman Wenzile Madonsela-Msimanga at Pulp Cinema.
Madonsela-Msimanga is currently the CEO of Princess Chronicles, a Women’s Leadership Training Programme. She was closely involved at the start of the #FeesMustFall movement at the University of Pretoria in 2015. During her talk she shared her personal story of being diagnosed with a mental illness, her road to acceptance, and being able to open up about it. Princess Chronicles is also currently collaborating with the South African Federation for Mental Health by doing research among students at SU, as well as engaging with management around support structures and mental health policy.
Madonsela-Msimanga spoke about how she has come to realise that when you engage with people on a human level, there is much better results.
“One thing I appreciate in life about people is their humanness and their vulnerability; something that society tries to make us feel guilty about,” Madonsela-Msimanga said.
Madonsela-Msimanga mentioned the fact that people are often scared to open up about their mental illnesses, since they may seem like they are “feeling sorry for themselves” and “victimising” themselves. She spoke about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder thirteen years ago, during which time she always wondered: “What’s wrong with me?”
Her account of her struggles with mental illness was a personal reflection of her “thirteen years of turbulence”, until she finally decided to embark on her “pursuit of happiness”.
Madonsela-Msimanga said that after checking into a wellness centre she realised that “the thing about mental illness is that you’re also afraid to acknowledge yourself and your feelings”.
After Madonsela-Msimanga’s talk, representatives from Maties Gymnasium also addressed the audience on the benefits exercise has on your mental health.
Fanelesibonge Ndebele, a final-year law student at SU also shared personal reflections on his experience with mental health, and also thanked Madonsela-Msimanga for creating a platform for him to be able to speak out.
“It’s these types of platforms that allow people, like myself, to be comfortable enough to stand up and to speak up and share their story; in whichever way, be it through speaking, through writing, or through art. As young people in this country, and all over the world, we are definitely in a crisis, because the systems in place are just not adequate enough to provide support and to provide platforms for awareness [on mental health],” he said.
The CSCD in collaboration with Pulp Cinema also showed movies related to the topic of mental health from 7 to 11 October. These movies included Black Swan (2009), Shame (2011) and Benny and Joon (1993). Maties Gymnasium also hosted daily yoga sessions.
SU’s commemoration of Mental Health Awareness month continues with a session on how to deal with the trauma inflicted by rape, which is taking place in room 1026 of the Van der Sterr building on 17 October. The SU drama department will also be having a creative expression evening on 22 October while Cindy-Rose Fintz will be facilitating a session on destressing and mindful movement on 24 October, also in room 1026 of the Van der Sterr building. The month of activities will be concluded with a talk on mental health at Tygerberg Medical Campus on 29 October. All the events mentioned start at 18:30.
Written by Liezl Human & Roxanne Mooneys.