as an outline we already as an input, we already, we have 2 inputs, we have activated both the inputs. we have already tested. the 2nd edward. we are ready. i'm super excited. this is something that will only happen once in our lifetimes. and once in history, that the tournament displayed the entire tournament in one city, in a small country like that. the 1st woke up in the middle east, the 1st being hosted by a muslim country and the jury is the loud whether it is going to be the 1st goblin neutral cup, as hundreds of flights are going to be bringing thousands of people in every day. and organizers are excited that it is happening in the region which has been made by divisions where sports diplomacy is going to help bring people together. ah, the top stories on al jazeera lest trust has become the u. k. shortest serving

prime minister announcing she stepping down after just 6 weeks in the jaw because she couldn't deliver on her promises. she lost authority after a controversial economic plan caused a collapse in the pound and cent mortgage rates. soaring. we delivered on energy bills along cutting national insurance, and we set out a vision for a low tax hi, great economy. that would take advantage of the freedoms of breaks it. i recognized that given the situation i cannot deliver the mandates on which i was elected by the conservative party. i therefore, spoken to his majesty the king to notify him the i am resigning as leader of the conservative party and the race to replace her will take place next week with former defense secretary penny mordant, to form a finance chief wishes to knock and even former prime minister boys, johnson considered possible contenders. britton's 5th prime minister in 6 years

will be chosen by next friday. violence has broken out into dan's blue. now state would reports more than a 150 people have been killed around 90, more have been injured in the conflict triggered by land disputes, and the militarization of tribal groups. fighting over rival land claims between the houser and berta, tribes and july left dozens of people dead and thousands more displays the lease of 30 democracy protested, have been killed in charred violence, broke out after demonstrators barricaded roads and torched, the ruling parties. headquarters in the capital and jemina police fired rubber bullets and tig asked dispersed the crowds. chad has been on edge since the death of president interest derby last year ukrainian or authorities of impose power restrictions and blackouts for the 1st time since the war began. as russian strikes huh. critical infrastructure. people across the country have been urged to use less power as the government of forces electricity cubs between 7 am and 11 pm,

ukraine's president blood may zalinski as russian attacks have damaged a 3rd of power stations. okay, those are the headlines here. we're now just here a stay with us though because the stream is coming up next looking at africa's mental health emergency. stay with us for that. ah ah welcome to the stream. i'm josh rushing, sitting in front of me. okay. the world health organization is leading a public awareness campaign aimed at tackling high rates of debt by suicide across

africa. and it's urgent governments across the continent to do more for people in crisis. so today we ask, why is there a mental health emergency and africa? hey, look, if you're watching this on youtube yet, little box like right there. we have a live stream producer waiting, get your questions and comments to me. so i can get him to our expert turned the show. so let's do this together and it's really important show today i can use your help. but i want to warn you, we're going to be talking about some sensitive issues that include mental health and death by suicide. ah, joining us to discuss the mental health crisis across africa, avi way, for nanny as a senior officer at united for global mental health. she's in cape town, south africa, laska cosa, is founder at mine lab, africa, mental health care nonprofit. she joins us from kampala, uganda, and from jose nigeria, we have ruth tilley kado. she is a journalist in

a mental health advocate. alright, avi way, i'd like to begin with you. and so you're sitting in south africa and yeah, 6 of the 10 countries in the world that have the highest suicide rates are in sub saharan africa. but 3 of those countries are actually within the borders of south africa. so i'm just, i want to ask you what's going on there, what's happening with mental health in south africa? so yeah, as you said, we definitely have a mental health crisis in south africa. the biggest challenge is that we have a challenge of avoidance. we don't have the right policies, and there's still quite a lot of stigma when it comes to mental health challenges and mental health as a whole. and we have 23 suicide deaths in south africa every day. and then

$460.00 attempts of suicide deaths in south africa every single day. so at the moment had really is a crisis that we're in and we don't have enough services as a country. there's a 93 percent treatment gap. so it means that the number of people that need access to care and the people that receive care, i'm not enough, we don't have enough services. a mental health policy lapsed in 2020 and it has not yet been updated. many of the mental health service workers are not trained enough to serve the people that are in their communities. and so that really leaves us in a space where we are constantly being reactive to the mental health crisis. and not necessarily being preventative towards positive mental health. while the un is trying to do this campaign, i want to bring her in doctor joseph a cobra who is the director for program management. that the who, here's what he has to say about this. millions of people needing

care do not have access to services with encrypted conditions leading to staggering debussy, fish and such a disability substance abuse and even suicide ended and africa therapy come to john as the highest 3 top suicide globally. iran 11 out of 100000 people, die by suicide every year. and is it bo global? average of 9? be 100000 people. so luz is talking about the suicide rights there. and to me, suicides in this issue are the canary in the coal mine, but they're also kind of the tip of the iceberg of a mental health crisis. i don't know if we need to focus as much necessarily on suicide as why those numbers are so high. and that's kind of the broader mental health crisis. now you're in uganda, you're joining us in the middle of

a power outage. is that right in? in uganda, you got about a one, a 1000000 chat in the air of kampala. so you, i think we have a delay that that's okay. i'll be patient as my question, but in uganda you have a one and 1000000 chance of meeting a psychiatrist. meaning for every 1000000 people that live there, you have one psychiatrists. but as a, as you're in a power outage right now, how does the country, i guess, trias, what they need to address here? do they address, getting you more steady electricity, or do they address? getting more psychiatrist. thank you for your question. it's a very tricky question. but of course, would be to get more electricity rate. we're not, but it's one point where we take mental health very, very seriously. like you vege for population of 4546000000,

differently. one psychiatrist. yes. and it's very disheartening. you know, we couldn't go, we couldn't blame all of our africa, mental health trying to do, we can say, oh, there's a lack of awareness live, but they are people doing that, that work, right? that's what we do. that's what i really does rate, but we have, we have a policy that we have an axis rate. so it's not just enough to say it is new when it or to blame it on stigma. but we need to ask ourselves that president, question where, what are we doing to address it? what action are we taking to address the mental health crisis and i'll tell you, feel free, we aren't doing enough. okay. just if i me don't work. i'm coming to you, i'm coming to you and you're, you're in niger area. actually want to set you up with a bit of a package from out just here a reporter mohammed address. he did that,

he was showing kind of children who have been in boca rom camps and they're receiving this kind of psychological support after the camps here, let's run this clip born and raised quarter m cams, these children are experiencing for the 1st time what it means to be a child, oh, they're part of the 6000 victims and family members of bull caught on fighters who sit under tonight, jerome's the georgia forces in the past few months. after a few weeks of psychological support. those helping them are surprised by the rapid transformation they see. you see a lot of them coming into desert space thinking very distress thinking hungry. what alpha weeks of engagement. oh, because me and there's been a whole theme on some time depending on how we see there wasn't ability and all of that. so we offer the engagement, you see a lot of changes, you see them interacting better. you see them taking leadership role to see them doing for much better. so ruth, watching this clip,

it seems kind of promising. actually it seems you, there are a lot of children who are getting the psychological support that they might need is that common in nigeria is that, is that the situation there where you are? ok, thank you very much. just thank you for having me on the show. so like lee said, well, also jerry at the challenge is not necessarily that we don't have the don't those. or there is a lack of awareness that challenge mostly is the fact that we have a silent culture. a culture where something just a couple you can talk about. and so what's in the video, you know, it is really hopeful. i'm excited to see because nigeria and know they know that you know this young people need this interventions. it will people who are just kidnapped by vocal her, or bandy, need these interventions because when they come back into the society,

i tell you you're not the same people. they are not the same. people are all who come back into society and it's difficult for them to acclimatize so they also need this psycho logical health intervention in such a way that you know, they can come back and be normal people because what they see in dose, bushes is know what normal people should go through and so yes, there is a lot of intervention now. there is a lot of when that's the challenge is the idea of the silent cultural where, you know, we don't want to talk about mental issues. nobody wants to identify as having mental issues. and i think you're hitting a cord for listening because in uganda the, the word suicide, right? i guess the word suicide itself is taboo. yeah. and the act of it is actually get criminalized. i don't even understand how that plays out yet. to touch on the yes so yes, suicide is criminalized. it's, it's, it's, i don't friends i'm and it never made sense to me because what do you do when

someone dies from? so if i hit, you know, do you try to do, what do you charge them with it never made sense to me. and this is, has was actually one of the issues that were highlighted during while suicide prevention day last month. and so yes, there is still a lot of sticking around the web suicide. it's not easy to say is speak about in public. i mean as a, so it's a, it's a part of my story that i often omit when i am doing my work around awareness and advocacy work around around mental health. so we are, we are also living in sort of a, you know, silent culture. it's very taboo even from you know, a cultural perspective. if someone died from suicide, they don't receive a proper burial over the past year. i know people close to me that have died from suicide or, you know, loved ones of people close to me. and that has been that,

that instant that has been the situation. right. so we still need, we have a very long way to go in terms of getting people to all of addressing. and you know, understanding this over addressing the stigma around suicide. i just, i keep saying it is our inability to talk about. so we say that in the long run cause is more suicides, rates are, are you tube audience? and let me tell you something. if you don't know much about the world, are you to comments? it's not a place where there's a lot of gratitude and positivity. but we actually are getting a lot of gratitude for talking about this today. so maybe people are tired of it being taboo and other. let me throw a couple of comments, were actually getting on twitter and from you tube here. this is from someone in the real ship banassi, tro, viddy. they said the stigma surrounding mental illness in africa is so bad,

is now become denial. it's easy to jump to conclusions such as witchcraft. people replace prescription with prayer, when things turn to work, they say god's will. he goes on to say a priest, a pastor, a shake, a clan elder is more trusted than a medical doctor or psychiatrist, a patient refusing prescription from a doctor in favor of rituals. pisses me off because it's suicide bait this business in which integrity is obsolete sad individuals are unaware why he had a lot to say, but audio, can you pick up on that? oh yeah, definitely it's. it's something that i think in every african culture, regardless of where you are, it's the same thing. culture and religion are imbedded in african to everyday life of africans and with mental health. i think what, exasperation, the crisis, apart from the style and culture is that immediately when people are showing signs off going into a depressive episode,

or if they communicate even feeling suicidal immediately they're really gated to the background. they told that they need to half an up culturally they told, i know in south africa it's usually associated with an ancestral calling. so what people call plaza and you're meant to go and go into initiation for true being a traditional healer. or if you need to go for prayer, so all these different elements of what it is in terms of african culture to be viewed as experiencing a mental illness. but again, as often opportunity. i think with all of that there's always an opportunity. so now it's coming back to how do we actually look at the different systems and societies were functioning in and actually develop programs that work. so integrating more community based services. the 1st thing that i advocates for locked an african suicide because sitting across the psychiatry. so if i try to just immediately the world, the app, there is a level of guardedness, there's

a level of holding back and, and already there's just so much taboos sitting within a person. and i think if we bring in elements of community, because community, something that is so important to africans, that in actually when we integrate mental health services, it's important for us to also remember what is culturally appropriate. what can work for people that are operating in the societies and they can just adam the element of mental while be know we have if i may, yeah, we're jumping. ok. so if i pay, you know, my great aunt actually committed suicide. so i'm married now, but if my husband's family knew that someone him, i mean they had committed suicide, they would not talk to me with a long sworn. that is amazing because i just got to know there's like 3 years ago i was talking to my mom. i don't know if she intended to tell me, you know, she just put it out there. and i'm like, what, what did you say?

you know, she goes on and tells me the story. but then now i'm happy that you know, several years down the line we can see down and talk about this. so the people know that you want, if someone in your family has committed suicide or someone, you know, a lot one has committed suicide. the stigmatizing shawn has to stop. because if we don't stop to stigmatize asia, that people will not be willing to come over and talk about the mental health situation. you know, like you said, joshua elia there, read a lot that leads to suicide. it will not last trauma, trauma will be, will don't go into depression. but here you will not need to as trauma, we don't pay attention to re, someone stays, i'm from night and everyone laughed and it like, really traumatized on time because of what you know. so these are some discussions that we need to, you know, talk about more openly, sort of people knows that they need to get help when they are really mentally pressed. you know, worked, i wonder if we didn't do you a bit of

a disservice by showing that clip from boca harass with the children because they represent a very extreme example. i think most people would agree might need some psychological help, but really the problems much more broad as much more ubiquitous. and it's much more common than someone who's been something as extreme as growing up in a book or her arm camp. right. i mean it's like we all deal with it. right? yes, we do. absolutely. and i would say that in a gerry, a full in lot of ball as it is, we don't necessarily have to be in the book with her. i'm come to feel the pressure because with everything going around, we feel like so many things not work in. so we almost feel like everyone is sort of like india, you know, book or her. i'm comfort of way because we have so mentally pressure you're trying to get just the lead to less thing to work like does good health care. you cut up for that, you know, for some people can afford food. so that put

a lot of pressure on people. so these are the things that, you know, cumulate into all of you know, suicide. you know, the biggest things that we're talking about now. but they're really nigeria, there, read a lot of mental pressure. and like, you know, world over it affects the men more than the women because look, man, don't like to talk about the mental issues. you know, we're right, right. i'm glad you said that because we actually have, we can come back. so i know you had more to say there, but we have a video comment from someone in the stream community. they sent us into us. the name is eddie kamani. they're about as far away in the cotton as i get from you there and kenya on the other side. and he is a mental health awareness advocate here. it took us up to keep the disposable mental health. i wish to share my boss, my job. you have led to that you cannot ignore your motions. over my nearly 40 years class for this off, as well figure and mental health, i believe that governments and institutions and workspaces should fund more mental health programs. the solution lies in integrating mental health. we've seen the

overall health care system and workspaces and africans as individuals. i would like us to see mental health move from just being a conversation to action, where we can start doing things and embracing our wellness and fighting stigma, but said own mental health. so there's a man talking about the stigma and talking about his own mental health journey. what do you think about that and africa? man, i know that he's very impressive. very, very impressive. i call on all men, especially those in line. jerry are, when you have issues, you know, what happens back home when most men have mental health issues be the result of drinking. they become a colleagues. that's a way to take out their mental health issues. they just drink this to paul and come back home and sleep all come back home. you know, in the get involved in what devices of domestic violence and things like that. that

is what they do. so if an african man can talk about it, i think that now is the time for all men to come up and say, look, i am depressed. i have had issues, maybe in my office, i have fragile here on day. i am utterly depressed and i need to know now is the time to talk about it because it is only a healthy person that can be healthy for society. that kamani they're seeing in your praises here on the stream lesson. less than that. yeah, yeah, yeah, go for it, i'll be way go for it. so with what's just going back to the bulk of her arm cams and whacks ruth had mentioned. so there's something called toxic straits if you're constantly exposed to stressful situation. adverse experiences that actually increases your threshold off experiencing what recall toxic stress. that means that in the long term that increases your risk of mental illness increases the chances of swiss identity increases chances of anxiety at risk behavior. so with all of

that, it means that the preventative mental health measures are very important. yes, it's important for us to treat mental illness and also provide safe spaces when people are suicidal. but i really believe from a young age that we need to put in preventative, mental health measures. and other words, we teach people how to find safe spaces and communicate their feelings. teach people how to be able to become self resilient, how to calm themselves down. i know right now self, kay is like the buzzword, but at the end of the day, that is a part of being mentally well. and the reality is we all have mental health, if not just mental illness, but mental health as a whole. as a spectrum, every one of us, the thing, yeah, have mental health that how do we maintain positive mental health? how do we take care about mental health? it's like brushing your teeth every day. do something every day that contributes toward the positive mental, well be most key pick up on that. i'm yes,

i'll just quickly go back to what ruth shared about, you know, addressing men's mental health. so what we've noticed, what we've observed over the years, is generally in the health care system. women have better health seeking behavior than men. so even if it were something like a cold or during colvin, that woman is more likely to seek out. i treatment and health health care. yeah, treatment of some kind and which isn't the same for men. however, addressing mental health, mental health challenges amongst men, what we've discovered, what we've seen locally is it's important for us to consider rich reaching men where they are. yes they have, they, they suffer more from, you know, they are more from depression, suicide rates are high among men. so they are the most bull bull. when it comes to these conversation, sions that help them. how do we ensure that, you know, they have this covers,

you're breaking up your worst and want to make it and know where to find them. oh there says ruth, one of the things i read was the, the we look at the suicide numbers, but they represent a successful suicide temp represent one and 20 a people who actually attempted it. meaning the problem is much drive 20 times larger than what the actual numbers say. can we use the last few minutes of the show here? if everyone has some tips on what you would advise people to do, who might find themselves in the mental health crisis route, do you, do you have some tips like that that, that, that you could share? yes, i think the 1st one would be, i think you, joshua das, sorry, i think the 1st people would be that be aware than their real mental health. be aware, you must be aware, you know, we, it's very easy to speak out where we have like a headache. we have malaria back in west africa and people just go to the hospital . so when you have you feel the mental pressure, it could be as little as just feeling traumatized about something or just feeling

depressed about some issues. please go on, speak, help. don't wait until it becomes be. so be a way, be very aware that there was something called mental health and it could affect your lives. you don't do it says be aware and seek help was do you, do you have some tips for people in there are people in our youtube chat right? now talking about their challenges, what i would say is it's okay not to be okay. and if the, that acknowledgement, preston, 1st of all that eventually leads you to will lead you to, to, to secret support that should need. so it's important to be mindful and say, okay, it's okay to be okay. the same way i have a headache or flu is the same way i, you'd need to address, you know, whatever mental health challenge are going through at the time. and on the way what, what do you got for us just to follow on the ladies again,

identifying your feelings is very important, but also reaching out to 24 hours suicide help lines. i know they are quite a few in africa here in south africa, we have the south african depression, and anxiety group is a 24 hour helpline in terms of suicide. and you can call them and speak to someone that's an anonymous line. and then also reaching out to community groups that work with people that are meeting mental health services. so really just taking those steps even chantelle stansell speaking to someone that you trust. yeah. and that that is my, my main encouragement. all right, so that's i think that's where we're going to end it today. i want to take all 3 of my gust avi way, liz. ruth, for be want to come on and talk about something that is taboo. but it's even more important. and if you're out there and you need help, i promise there are people that want to help you. there are crisis lines that you can get to. so that's all we have time for today. but you can always find us online at stream. got al jazeera dot com take care of yourself,

right. thanks for watching. ah ah

ah, ah ah . in these turbulent times up front returns for a new season. join me, mark them on hill as we take on the big issues from the state of democracy around the world to the struggles faced by the under representing we will challenge the conventional wisdom up front on al jazeera stories of hope and inspiration. short documentary from around the world that celebrate carries and resilience in times of tamaya

out is a select on now, does it the chinese communist party holds it. 20th congress. delegates will meet to discuss constitutional change, economic challenges, and foreign policy with president gene being likely to secure at that time. will he be given even more power to pursue his vision for the future? follow the story on out his era. ah, i'm need parker in london, the top stories on al jazeera, this trust has become the u. k. short is serving prime minister announcing she stepping down.