Mental health experts have sensitized Kereri Girls students on mental health and Gender Based Violence GBV issues a head of their midterm break.
The experts, speaking to teachers and students expressed the need for consolidated efforts in affordable health care services to communities in order ti address the problem better.
Dr.Magdalene Gesare and Dr Lister Kefah said the most affected are students who suffer silently because of their vulnerability which is caused by their parents.
The experts were speaking to teachers and students of Kereri Girls High School in Kisii County as they prepared for their midterm break.
“We decided to have time with these girls here to sensitize them on the dangers of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and its relationship to mental health.
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Dr.Gesare named defilement femicide, suicide and depression being on the rise in society because different family formations and their environment.
She appealed to teachers and other social community workers to take time to listen to the young people especially students to enable them understand their home backgrounds before being judgmental to them whenever they tended to derail from societal norms.
“Depression is on the rise and it is being a thread among the adolescents and it would be appropriate to enlighten these people on their safety and wellbeing,” She said.
Dr Gesare who is a lecturer at Egerton University, asked parents to create an enabling environment void of quarrels in order to save their growing children from mental breakdown adding that a supporting home is crucial for the mental welfare and security of the youth.
“A child who is used to seeing parents quarreling with their mother or father battered by an egoistic partner will not be the same as one who has grown up in a loving home and sees parents joyful and welcoming and eating together,” she said.
Dr.Kefah asked communities to treat mental health issues like any other disease whenever they occurred instead of viewing the victims as outcasts.
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She asked the younger generation to rise above some outdated taboos that have been obstacles to the improvement of communities’ social and economic development.
She asked communities not to look at those in society with mental health problems as abnormal people but accept them and seek to know the cause of their negative behaviour.
“It is high time we faced the reality and understand mental health issues by shedding off the uncouth cultural beliefs about mental ailments and get out to treat it like any dreadful disease like cancer instead of dwelling on stereotypes as our brothers and sisters suffer in the silence of cultural condemnation,” she said.
Dr.Kefah who is an experienced counsellor, a high School teacher and author, asked communities to learn to identify some symptoms of mental health deviations among people in order to prevent them from worsening.
She paraded genetics, physiological make up, life experiences like trauma, stress experiences and the environment as some of causes of mental instability.
She caused light moments amongst learners when she said that mental instability is not a personal weakness but manifestation of human nature in response to realities surrounding them.
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“This is a cry for help and you are the right people to save the world through your focused concentration in your classwork to enable you get good grades to Join University appropriate knowledge to enable you to be useful people in society,” she said.
Kereri Girls Senior Principal Dr.Tabitha Mogonchi, thanked the speakers for their timely message and asked the girls to seize the opportunity and treasure the message for their social enrichment.
Saying that the growth of any learning institutions calls for corporate positive responsibility. She assured the society to open its doors for them to make it a school of choice.
She thanked the Ministry of Education for elevating the institution to national status adding that it did not come by chance but through hard work as it is manifested in the 2024 KCSE examination results.
She said the school has a population of 3000 students and asked parents to double the efforts in making it an anemic destination.
By Enock Okong’o.
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