Statistics indicate that mental health is becoming a major challenge with 57.7 percent of students experienced depression.
Speaking in Nairobi during the launch of the Mental Health Initiative targeting university and college students in higher institutions of learning, HealthRight Kenya Organization Country Director, Benson Simba, called for closer collaboration and a multisectoral approach to address mental health challenges in institutions of higher learning across the country.
“We have been able to implement critical models around mental health that we seek to scale up
within university space so that we can cover both in-school and out-of-school students,” Simba noted.
The Initiative dubbed Minds in Motion (MiM): From Stress to Resilience, Turning Conversations
into Action places the Students at the center of conversations and co-creation in innovative
solutions in partnership with Universities across Kenya and Private-Public Institutions.
To reverse the trend HealthRight Kenya Organization has partnered with institutions of higher learning and other development partners to try and deploy technology to address persistent and emerging challenges to global health.
In 2024 a research study conducted at the Technical University of Mombasa showed that mental health was a major issue with 57.7 percent of students experiencing depression.
“Mental Health is a growing pandemic and that is why we are partnering with several organisations to be able to address this problem from a holistic view,” He added.
HealthRight Kenya Organization Country Director Benson Simba says there is need to places the learners at centre of conversations and co-creation in innovative solutions to try and deal with the mental health issues.
Speakers who were present at the event dubbed minds in motion said the trend was worrying and the nation should speak in one voice in seeking solutions to the mental health challenges to HealthRight Kenya has worked for two decades across 11 counties to expand equitable access to quality health system for marginalized populations.
While pledging full support to the initiative, University of Nairobi Dean of Students Johnson Ireri
Kinyua insisted on the need to take urgent action describing it as a crisis especially in institutions
of higher learning.
“Students are committing suicide every day and as we speak we lost one last week that we are
yet to bury. One student or life lost is one too many and we have seen our partner HealthRight
Kenya talking to our students and they are opening up and they want more collective healing
circles,” he said.
HealthRight Kenya has worked for two decades across 11 counties in Kenya improving healthcare
outcomes for nearly 4.5 million people in the process.
The organization has set its programming around four key areas of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH); HIV; Violence; and Mental Health.
CEO HealthRight International, Peter Navario, says, “HealthRight Kenya has done incredible work over the last 20 years from establishing the first comprehensive care HIC centre in Kapenguria, to increasing family planning uptake in Trans Nzoia and Elgeyo Marakwet and now the new interesting initiative about Mind in Motion which we are excited about. There is a lot to celebrate and this embodies the work and ethos of Healthright Kenya,” Peter Navario, CEO HealthRight International.
