Prince Harry in Nigeria: Advocates for Mental Health Awareness

Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and his wife Meghan Markle are in Nigeria on a three day visit. The trip is part of events to mark the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, a sporting initiative by the Prince for injured service men and women.

One of the stops of the Prince’s entourage was at a two day mental health summit in Abuja. Here he met with children of a local academy.

In his words, “there’s no shame to acknowledge that today is a bad day, that you left school feeling stressed”.

Furthermore, Harry sought to find out the perception of the students to the words ‘mental health’. To know if they had fears about it, before going on to educate them about the general stigma facing mental health globally.

The takeaway for the children was knowing that issues affecting mental health are worldwide and no respecter of persons.

“The more you talk about it, the more you can kick it in the long grass”. “It’s okay, not to be okay.”

Brian, a Lightway Academy student joined the royal couple on stage.

He said, “Both boys and girls have feelings and emotions they bottle up because they can’t really express it… it can lead to suicide.”

Joyce Agbese, the director of the school told the BBC mental health is hardly talked about in Nigeria.

She praised Prince Harry’s message to the students, which was to “speak up and speak out, don’t bottle things up”.

source: BBC News