By Mustapha Ceesay
Africa’s Teachers Mental Health & Well-being Campaign has been launched at a virtual ceremony on 2nd November 2022.
The campaign scheduled to run from 2nd– 20th November 2022, aims to raise awareness on Africa’s Teachers Mental Health & Well-being.
It is spearheaded by EduTalkAfric Radio with a number of education CSOs from across the continent, and is a response to the key messages from this year’s World Teachers Day (October 5th) & World Mental Health Day (October 10th).
The virtual launch hosted in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi was graced by education stakeholders and media houses from up to 7 countries, including representatives of various Education Ministries from across the continent.
Speaking at the online press conference launch of the campaign, Dr. Herine Otieno, founder and programme Director of EduTalkAfric Radio said: “The campaign is born out of an understanding of the current mental health and well-being challenges amongst Africa’s population, including teachers and the appreciation of the urgent need to prioritise Africa’s teachers mental health and well-being; as a key strategy to the continent achieving the much needed transformation in the continent (and achieving SDG4) as recently signed to by the individual African governments during the UNGA hosted transformation of education summit in September this year.”
The campaign aims to conduct a number of mostly online activities including webinars and talk shows on both online and mainstream media.
The key webinars lined up during the campaign would focus on key areas including: practical & research based ideas for Africa’s teachers well-being & self-care; spotlight on key policy and research findings on Africa’s teachers mental health & well- being; school based community mental health clubs-a case study from Kenya; and role of CSOs and parents in supporting the fostering of positive mental-health & well- being amongst Africa’s teachers.
The first webinar which was facilitated by a teacher coach on well-being and self- care from the United Kingdom was held on Friday 4th November.
In addition to the online webinar and conversation, EduTalkAfric Radio & partners plan to mobilise teachers CSOs and other stakeholders to host informal and or formal conversations on mental health and well- being (staffroom chats & Teacher mental health and well- being tea parties) in at least 500 schools across the continent during the campaign period.
The final activity of the campaign is planned to take the form of a teacher festival in Rwanda, which would see many teachers come together to engage in fun sports and recreational activities.
All teachers and education stakeholders are asked to join in the conversation and use the curated resource materials that will be uploaded on EduTalkAfric Radio website (www.edutalkafric.com) and circulated widely in various social media platforms (twitter: @edutalkafricR; Facebook Page: edutalkafric ) including WhatsApp groups.
Various stakeholders addressed the launch including a mental health practitioner from Tanzania, Mr. Onesmo Petro; Ms. Rebecca Assan, Math and Science teacher from Ghana; and Mr. Ngosa Kotati, Director, Teacher Education and Specialised Services from the Ministry of Education of Zambia, among others.