Ahmad’s Story
Hi, my name is Ahmad Nisar. I am an activist from Afghanistan, but I am currently based in Melbourne, Australia. My mental health has always been a priority for me. Yet, it is not in a dynamic state all the time, and requires genuine efforts to be stabilised.
I was first exposed to mental health in school because of multiple factors. As I kept moving on in life, I realised the importance of good mental health for all functionality, quality of life and contentment. Everyday life becomes so much more fulfilling and easy when you see the world through a mentally stable perspective.
From the context I come from, mental health seems like a foreign word, a concept so firmly closeted and misunderstood that it makes reaching out impossible. However, my interest, connections and knowledge not only improved my mental health but also motivated me to work around mental health advocacy and service provision in Afghanistan.
If you’ve travelled to Afghanistan you’ll hear thousands of heart wrenching stories of how poor the knowledge and situation on mental health is. Horrendous stories and pictures flashes from all over Afghanistan which is often filled with trauma, violence and oppression. These stories range from selling your kidney for survival, to being burnt alive.
In spite of the strong need for the provision of mental health services, stigmatisation, unaffordability and lack of knowledge makes it highly challenging for people to ask for and access support. Accurate research on the mental health landscape is missing because Afghan leaders have long used political unrest as a reasonable alibi to ignore other priorities.
Another determinant of the situation is the lack of funding, weak strategies and support mechanisms for mental health. All internal and external funding goes into other priority issues like political stability and hunger, while in reality, providing mental health services along with other types of support is a more compact and comprehensive way of dealing with the situation.
Since the trauma people endure is more than just food and shelter, we have constantly advocated for including mental health services as an integral part of the donor funding that goes to Afghanistan. In fact, it is not just Afghanistan, but any conflict-stricken context should have mental health services as an essential part of the humanitarian aid they receive. Additionally, lived experience of survivors must be used as a tool to inform trauma-informed care and improve the quality of services to make it informed by the survivors needs.
In our capacity, we continue to do mental health advocacy in Afghanistan, through an initiative I have founded myself which is called Changemaker. Changemaker is a young people’s initiative that pushes the narrative around mental health and marks its interconnected links to other SDGS, particularly SDG 4 and 5. We see mental health as a crucial element of society but it is not limited to clinical settings only. Therefore we invest in contextualised, community-based programs.
“Lived experience of survivors must be used as a tool to inform trauma-informed care and improve the quality of services...”
Our past programs include after school classes for intellectually weak students. It is focused on providing basic literacy and coping skills which benefited 180 female students at a time when girls weren't allowed to attend schools. Storytelling is another area we work on to raise awareness and shift negative attitudes on mental health by illustrating comic books.
Our target areas in the past months have been South Asia due to increased stigma and inaccessiblity of services in the region. Another milestone we are proud of is our mental health services program which is launching this month and will provide online mental health services to vulnerable populations in Afghanistan with a referral system incorporated for emergencies. This is a novel innovation taken to improve mental health systems in fragile settings
We also use digital advocacy for raising awareness on context-based challenges, and run a series specifically for mental health where we share knowledge on mental health. Additionally we make illustrations to concisely introduce coping skills for mental difficulties. Establishing my initiative required a set of skills and knowledge which I learnt from various organisations and networks including the Global Mental Health Action Network (Action Network).
My first interaction with United for Global Mental Health (UnitedGMH) was in a panel where I had the privilege of representing young people and their mental health needs. After the panel, I learnt about the Action Network which UnitedGMH is running and becoming a part of it has opened my eyes to global advocacy strategies.
“Establishing my initiative required a set of skills and knowledge which I learnt from various organisations and networks including the Global Mental Health Action Network.”
There are a number of action groups working on a range of socially, economically, and strategically important advocacy efforts for mental health. I am part of the Child and Youth Working Group and we regularly consult, engage, review and advise on the global advocacy and political landscape on mental health at some of the most high-level advocacy platforms.
In the past, I had the opportunity to speak at annual meetings online which have been held in person this year. Each year the annual meeting brings civil society organisations and advocates working on mental health in order to network, collaborate and advance progress on mental health internationally.
The Action Network also provides a space for mental health activists to network, exchange knowledge, share opportunities and collaborate with each other. For those that are passionate about mental health advocacy, joining the network is a good start for their learning journey.
If you would like to share your story with GMHAN we invite you to complete the form on this page.
