Evelyn Tiren’s Story

WONDER Foundation, UK

My background and current work sit at the intersection of women’s empowerment, education, and community well‑being. I serve as the Social Impact Manager at WONDER Foundation, where I oversee women’s education and empowerment programs across Kenya and Uganda. In this role, I support local project leads to implement their plans effectively, develop monitoring and evaluation frameworks, strengthen knowledge management, and lead capacity‑building initiatives that enhance local ownership and long‑term impact.

My journey into mental health advocacy took shape during my time coordinating the Mwangaza Project, a partnership between WONDER Foundation and Kianda Foundation in Kenya. Through this project, I witnessed first-hand how deeply mental health affects women’s daily lives and their ability to break cycles of poverty. Many of the women we worked with had carried enormous burdens for years, quietly supporting their families, navigating financial stress, and enduring trauma—until the weight manifested in ways that were often misunderstood: chronic fatigue, unexplained pain, or a sudden loss of motivation.

Working closely with local trainee counsellors, and the many community counsellors we trained through the project, I saw extraordinary resilience and leadership emerge. Their openness to learning and their commitment to supporting others was profoundly inspiring. I later completed a year of counselling training myself, which strengthened my understanding of the emotional landscape many women navigate and the importance of community‑rooted mental health support.

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What I’ve learned is that mental health and economic empowerment are inseparable. We can’t rely solely on individual willpower. Lasting change happens when programmes recognise the social, emotional, and psychological dimensions of women’s lives. The project has also shown me the power of local leadership: communities know best how to support one another, and culturally grounded approaches are key. My hope is that this work inspires others to embed mental health into all empowerment programmes and to trust in the insights and leadership that women themselves and their communities -bring to the table.

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