Mental health has always been part of my family story, so it’s something I’ve been aware of from an early age. When I started working in South London with migrant families, it became clear just how differently communities experience mental health and trauma. I got to know organisations led by people from those communities, supporting, for example, Vietnamese refugees or Somali families, and I began to see how much culture shapes the way mental health is understood and addressed.

My story begins with my own lived experience. There was a time when I did not know what was wrong or where to find support. And even when I eventually accessed help, I struggled to connect with the methods being offered. Something felt misaligned, but I did not yet have the language to explain why. That dissonance sent me on a personal quest to understand mental health in ways that felt contextual, embodied, and culturally relevant.

My journey into mental health advocacy began with profound loss at 19, I lost my closest friend to suicide. She was brilliant and kind, yet beneath the surface, she was drowning. There were no school counselors, no crisis support systems, no one trained to see the signs I now recognize everywhere. Her death was not inevitable; it was the predictable outcome of systematic failure.

My journey into global mental health advocacy did not begin in a hospital or policy space. It began in rooms filled with women who came for fitness but stayed to talk about stress, exhaustion, anxiety, and the emotional weight they were carrying. Through movement-based sessions, guided reflection, and mental health education, I saw how safe spaces and practical tools could help women reconnect with themselves.

My journey into mental health advocacy began not in a classroom or conference hall, but on the streets, sitting with young women injecting heroin behind a market. Over weeks, they began to speak—not about addiction, but about childhood violence, lost children, police brutality… I learned that their mental distress was not pathology. It was a legitimate response to an illegitimate system.

I began my mental health advocacy journey with Tanzania Community Health Information and Support (TaCHIS), working with higher learning institutions through arts and sports to promote awareness and early support among youth in Tanzania Mainland.  I have learned that real change begins when we listen deeply to lived experiences and center community voices in our work.

After an international career focused on improving sexual and reproductive health access in sub-Saharan Africa, my personal experiences - both as a caregiver for relatives with psychiatric disorders and as a survivor of perinatal depression - reshaped my mission. Determined to dismantle the taboos surrounding women's mental health, I founded the Hakili Nafaya Institute.