I was in Lagos for about three months to see my son take on a partner for life when he married his sweetheart. In the midst of all the preparations and celebrations, I attended the Wimbiz ( women in business – and Government too!) annual conference in Nov 2018. Now this year’s conference was something else!
It was attended, I believe, by over 2,000 delegates from all over Nigeria and Africa.
And it was the BEST ever! Just when you think it couldn’t be better, the executive and organizers of Wimbiz, come up with ideas that are as scintillating as they are innovative!
I was blown away by the candid confessions of celebrities who had been secretly dealing with so much mental stress that they were suicidal!
I know about physical disability but mental disability?? What is that?
I had thought that only the “mad” people walking the streets without clothes on were the only ones with mental problems! And in Africa? Or Nigeria where you grow up with the culture of being “your brother s keeper “how was it possible that these loving celebrities “lost it” with so many “brothers “around them? The truth is that mental problems are hardly discussed and discussion about one s mental state was treated like a taboo!
So How do you help solve a problem you don’t even know exists? One that no one dared talk about or voice openly?
This is why I doff my hat for the group of enlightened, caring and Awesome women who drew attention (effectively, I may add) to the now prevalent illness of mental disability.
Many shy away from seeing a therapist, fearing that a visit to the “ mad people s doctor “would expose them to ridicule.
Prince Harry from the British Royal Family shocked the world when he first drew attention to the horrors and importance of dealing with mental problems. He had suffered great pain and went into depression over the sudden death of his mother Princess Diana in a car accident in Paris. That is when people started to take the problem more seriously and may God bless him for helping many others who had been secretly dealing with the stigma of mental disability.
Wimbiz, there’s no other one like you and you Wimbiz women are simply AWESOME!
Well done!
Aunty Grace.