Kauna Ibrahim Malgwiory’s Story
Digital Rights and Mental Health Initiative, Nigeria
I am a clinical Psychologist, a former Facebook content moderator, and a PhD student. My work in global mental health advocacy extends beyond policy dialogue into direct community intervention through four core programs:
1. Back-to-School Digital & Mental Health Campaign
This initiative targets pupils, teachers, and parents at the beginning of each academic year. The campaign integrates digital literacy with psychological well-being, equipping students to navigate social media, cyberbullying, online exploitation, and academic pressure. We deliver psychoeducation on anxiety, trauma, emotional regulation, and help-seeking behaviors. Teachers receive basic mental health awareness training to identify early warning signs in students. The goal is prevention—building psychological resilience and healthy digital habits before harm escalates.
2. Mental Health & Digital Rural Community Campaign
This program focuses on underserved rural communities where access to mental health services and digital safety education is limited. We conduct community-based outreach that combines mental health awareness, trauma education, and digital rights literacy. The approach is culturally grounded and delivered in accessible formats, addressing stigma, misinformation, and structural barriers to care. We prioritize women, youth, and informal digital workers who are often excluded from formal mental health systems.
3. SafeTech Fellowship (18–35 years)
The SafeTech Fellowship is designed for young women and girls aged 18–35 who are navigating digital spaces as workers, students, entrepreneurs, or activists. The fellowship builds capacity in digital safety, trauma-informed leadership, online harassment response, and mental health advocacy. Participants receive structured mentorship, psychosocial support tools, and training in digital rights, policy engagement, and community organizing. The objective is to develop a new generation of African women leaders who understand both the psychological and structural dimensions of digital harm.
4. Mental Health Intervention for AI Trainers, Tech and Data Workers (Pro Bono Therapy Initiative)
This intervention responds to the psychological risks faced by AI trainers, content moderators, data annotators, and other tech workers who are routinely exposed to distressing, violent, or morally injurious material. Many of these workers operate in outsourced environments across the Global South, with limited access to confidential, trauma-informed mental health care.
The program provides structured pro bono therapy sessions delivered by licensed mental health professionals trained in trauma, occupational stress, and digital workplace harm. Services include:
Trauma-informed individual therapy (PTSD, secondary traumatic stress, burnout)
Psychoeducation on moral injury and algorithmic trauma
Group debrief and peer-support models
Psychological risk assessment and referral pathways
Emotional regulation and resilience-building interventions
Across these initiatives, the central framework remains consistent: mental health is not separate from digital rights. In today’s world, psychological safety must be treated as essential digital infrastructure.
Please share your reflections on what you've learned and you would like to share with our global community.
I have learned that mental health is deeply shaped by systems. Much of what we label as individual distress is often a response to structural harm, whether social, economic, gendered, or digital. Effective global mental health work must therefore address both personal healing and systemic reform.
Lived experience is a critical form of evidence and should be integrated into leadership, research, and policy design. I have also seen that communities in the Global South are generating innovative, culturally grounded solutions that deserve global recognition.
Ultimately, sustainable impact requires treating mental health as essential infrastructure—embedded in workplaces, schools, digital platforms, and public policy from the outset.
Find out why Kauna Malgwi made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence
What has been your favourite moment as a member of GMHAN?
My favorite moment has been engaging in global discussions where lived experience, policy, and research intersect meaningfully. Amplifying the voices of African digital workers on an international platform and seeing those concerns recognized reinforced the power of collective advocacy. The relationships built across regions have affirmed that coordinated, cross-border collaboration is essential for advancing global mental health.
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