Mumbai, October 12, 2019: Popular Bollywood singer, Armaan Mallik joins the Mpower movement and pledges to champion mental health at ‘The Happy Place’ today. ‘The Happy Place’ is an inter-school mental health festival co-hosted by Mpower, a champion and pioneer of mental healthcare in India and Aditya Birla World Academy
Armaan addressed the students encouraging them to make the world a mental health friendly place. He was seen enjoying the company of all the young school children and intently listening to what they had to share about mental health. He was very impressed with the levels of creativity shown by all the children and encouraged them all to become champions of the mental health movement. The children participated in competitions across dance movement therapy, street plays, photography, filmmaking, singing, research proposal poster competition and writing.
Addressing the students at The Happy Place, Armaan Mallik, said, “I am delighted to be here and it looks like a very happy place! I’d like to congratulate all the students and teams who took part in this wonderful initiative on the occasion of World Mental Health Week. Mental health is a very important issue amongst teenagers and young adults. Today, social media is a very big influence in youngster’s life as it makes other people’s lives look better than they actually are. The grass always seems greener on the other side and sometimes gives birth to some complexity amongst individuals and impressionable youngsters. It is important for you all to focus on yourself, take care of yourself and not let social media impact you to such a degree.
Opening up a little about himself, he also said that, “A year back I was in a bad place professionally and personally and I decided to take some down town which really helped me. I started working at a very young age, and I didn’t have enough time to socialise and hang out with my friends, but soon I realised that one needs to make these sacrifices to be successful and this what makes me who I am today. I encourage everyone of you to find your calling and work really hard towards it. As a youngster I too, like any teenager suffered from acne, and it resulted in a very low self-image, but as I grew up I realised that’s it’s a very normal thing and that we should not overthink it or get depressed because of this as this is just a phase.
I’m so happy to see Mpower leading this beautiful initiative and championing a very important cause. I would like to end by saying that you all should just focus on yourself and your mental well-being”
Commenting on this joint initiative, Mrs. Neerja Birla, Founder and Chairperson, Aditya Birla Education Trust, said, “It is critical that we start young and sensitize children at a younger age about various aspects associated with mental health. To address this critical need, we began The Happy Place, 3 years ago and since then we have seen a positive change in the perception of children about mental well-being. The Happy Place marks India’s first student-led mental health festival that encourages students to explore and share their understanding of mental health through specially curated activities and competitions like dance, music, photography, debates, drama that bring our various issues under mental health. Through the festival, they are more involved and aware about mental health and are ready to champion the cause. We hope to create young leaders of tomorrow who are aware about their surroundings and help encourage others to speak up when they need help.”
Mpower, founded by Mrs. Neerja Birla aims to be the movement that affects change and destigmatize mental health issues in India. Through ‘The Happy Place’ Mumbai’s school children were made more aware about the current state of mental health in India and encouraged to have open conversations about the cause.
No comments:
Post a Comment