PROMOTING MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS IN CAMBODIA

In addition to the pandemic which affected all lives globally, Cambodian youths are inevitably suffering from this global phenomenal and the residual of this crisis both physically and mentally. It is time to bring forward the actions to tackle the problems by creating a supportive learning environment, along with a platform for connection and sharing, as well as the collaboration with professional in order to break the silence surrounding mental health, promote inclusion, address stigmas, improve mental health literacy, and ensure young people and people with lived experience to have a voice.

Who are we?

Chumhor is a four-month project implementation (April - August 2022) funded by Finn Church Aid. The project is led by a youth-led initiative consisting of eight members using social media channels named “Komlang” and “Noted Thought” for outreach and intervention. The key beneficiaries of this project are Cambodian youths of all backgrounds, aged between 15-35 years old, who are struggling with emotional and mental health in their daily life. “Chumhor”, as a name, represents a foundation that everyone can rely on when encountering struggles. Our vision is to witness Cambodian youths live harmoniously in good mental health conditions. Our mission is to ensure Cambodian youths are able to openly discuss mental health issues in the society and to seek support and solutions to their mental health problems. We value equality, the culture of sharing, integrity, and respect. We believe Cambodian youths of all backgrounds and statuses are able to receive support on mental health concerns and be treated with respect. launching, a local language website (http:// chumhor.com), a 7-day social media campaign featuring quotes from high school students of their views on how schools could contribute to students’ mental health and wellbeing for the celebration of global Mental Health Awareness Month.

How Can We Help and Support?

Our objective is to strengthen mental health awareness among Cambodian youths through an accessible and inclusive digital platform, and social media content creations and to promote an open dialogue on mental health and wellbeing through online social media campaigns, group meditation, and art therapy session. Throughout the implementation period, we had highlighted our activities monthly in which during the month of May, we had our mental health digital resources

For the month of June, a webinar was conducted in collaboration with Cambodian Youth 4 Research (CY4R) to touch upon a basic understanding of what mental health is, the issues concerning, social media addictions, and what could be done in school contexts to promote mental health and wellbeing.

As for July, we aimed to embrace the uniqueness of our humanity, where pride is for everyone, covering the LGBTQI+ community topic by publicly articulating discussion surrounding mental and emotional struggle of the LGBTIQ+ individuals with the featured topic “Mental Health & LGBTIQ+”. The panel discussion was conducted to broaden awareness on the LGBTQI+ community correlating with their common mental health struggles such as social bullying and harassment through their gender decision, family rejection, and the cultural norms, what could be done to support, and eliminate discrimination toward the community.

In August, we engaged youths in mindfulness activities focusing on self-awareness and reflection, uplifting their inner strength and aspiration in their life, an in-person Workshop themed “Mental Health Begins with Me” with 14 participants coming from diverse backgrounds, including university students, Counseling and Public Health, Civil Society, Research, Private sector, young professionals and academia. The workshop introduced participants to practical wellness exercises, including both art therapy, and meditation sessions, where participants were encouraged to take home the knowledge, and practices in their daily life.

Aside from all the mentioned activities, we also provided mental educational con- tents weekly in local language on our social media channels as a part of the outreach for the audiences to have a deeper understanding of the definition, what could be done to lessen the problems and struggles in an empathetic approach.

A message we want to spread

Often time we get trapped in our own thoughts unknowingly. They are detrimental and sometimes unexplainable to other people. Those thoughts might also bring many uninvited problems to our lives. We ignore the sensation, thinking that is all just in our head and everything will work out just fine until one day when it builts up inside and everything becomes overwhelming to the point where it is even hard just breathe.

We want to encourage everyone to seek help either from the professional or the community that you can trust. We hope you are reminded that taking care of your mental and emotion well-being, is just as important as the physical health and mental health matters.