REGIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
The Regional Executive Committee Members are appointed by members of the Country Executive Committee. The committee consists of Regional Co-Leads. Members serve a one-year term.
Northern Africa
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Mr. Wilbroad is 30 years old and social worker by profession. He is a person with a mental health lived experience who is so passionate about mental health advocacy and always willing to use his story to empower others. He was able to fight and defeat Depression. He has a 6 years’ experience in working in the mental health Sector, and been involved in several mental health awareness programs. He is a mental health counsellor and social scientist by profession and have founded a local community based organization to create mental health awareness.
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Kabagambe Wilbroad (Uganda)
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Edwin is a passionate independent mental health advocate with lived experience with depression, anxiety, severe ADHD, and substance abuse disorder. He is skilled in promoting social inclusion, equality and social justice through advocacy. Edwin has been a mental health champion with Basic Needs Basic Rights Kenya and Time to Change Global and was involved in the development and launching of the global anti-stigma toolkit. Edwin has made use of social media by discussing mental health issues and opening the floor for others to speak out about their lived experiences. He is well versed in training, developing mental health initiatives, advocacy both online and offline with the main aim of creating awareness and destigmatizing mental health issues. Edwin has been working with various mental health organisations to create awareness and provide affordable mental health services. Edwin has been involved in initiatives that are driving change at the policy level with other persons with lived experience.
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Edwin Mutura (Kenya)
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Southern Africa
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Mr. Kapenda is a mental health advocate as well as an Educational Psychologist with a promising career in the Psychology industry. He was inspired to be part of the Mental liberty internship because the objective of the organisation which matches his perspective of demystifying mental health in the African context and integrating mental health in the school curriculum. Apart from that he runs a campaign to spread mental health awareness and improve the reading culture among children in rural areas by advocating for donation of information material which he later donates to vulnerable community schools. Engaged with his community, Marvin is now part of a group of other youths who are venturing in agriculture and are using land empowerment as a tool to promote others to sustain themselves through agro business. The group additionally promotes mental health and speaks against child marriages in the communities.
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Marvin Kapenda (Zambia)
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Americas
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Mr. Roil is a global mental health advocate, leader, public speaker, consultant and peer support specialist for over 30 years of experience and was recognized by the Government of NL's Human Rights Commission as being named as the 2021 NL Human Rights Awards Champion for Mental Health for his mental health advocacy and work on a provincial, national and international level. He has his mental health story and his national mental health advocacy profiled and published in two different American Bioethics Medical Journals called the Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics and Voices in November 2021 and January 2022 that are affiliated with John Hopkins University. He is a National Ambassador for the Stigma Zero workplace mental health program. He was the one of the public faces for the Government of NL's anti stigma mental health and addictions campaign called Understanding Changes Everything and the video can be viewed on the Government of NL YouTube channel. He has education and training on mental health first aid, suicide prevention and intervention and knowledge exchange with the Canadian Mental Health Association National and the Mental Health Commission of Canada. He has spoken at a number of provincial, national and international mental health conferences that include the Canadian Mental Health Association National Mental Health For All Conferences and the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police Joint Conferences. He has done a number of fundraising initiatives for mental health and he is working on a new global mental health fundraising project.
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Glenn Roil (Canada)
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Ms. Kriti’s professional journey has been interdisciplinary in terms of conceptualizing and practicing human rights especially in the area of gender empowerment and mental health. As a graduate student, she first got interested in understanding the psychology of minorities and how it translates to social issues such as mental health and sexual violence against women. Following her interest, she joined a developmental organization that aims to include the voices of marginalized communities through participatory research, capacity building, documentation, and dissemination of data to a larger audience. While she was evaluating a program designed for adolescent girls, she realized the correlation between mental health concepts such as self-esteem and women’s reproductive and sexual health. It was shocking to learn of the absence of mental health concepts into the operational framework of developmental professionals and agencies. Ms. Kriti took this as an opportunity to direct her work and resources towards finding the intersection between mental health and developmental issues It was also around this time that she underwent a family crisis which only made her realize how important mental health was to her and in her personal and professional life. Finding a balance between the demands of her professional life and the responsibilities of her personal life wreaked havoc on her own mental health. This motivated her to pursue empowerment for herself and others around her. She realized the potential of empowerment as a tool to fix mental health issues. She has struggled to maintain proper mental health and a status of empowerment in her roles as a woman and as an international student. As she further explored the empowerment construct in detail, she realized that the term "empowerment" itself has a psychological connotation to it. The minimal presence of available data on mental health in public health and developmental databases was shocking. She then further explored the vision and mission of WHO as a major stakeholder in the fight against poverty. It was disheartening to learn of the minimal focus that is given upon the psychological health of people living in poverty. We wish for minority communities to push through the rigid walls of marginalization, but monetary resources alone would not be sufficient. A holistic liberation is only possible when psychological empowerment gets an equal stake at the table. With psychological empowerment, minoritized communities will be able to change the status quo.
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Kriti Vashisht (United States)
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Europe
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Ms Raluca Hagianu is a trained Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist. She has experienced the challenges of working with children and their families. She is currently a part of the Executive Committee of the Global Mental Health Peer Network and making her debut in Mental Health advocacy and volunteer work for less fortunate mental health sufferers from around the world. She is also the carer for her mom who has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals from 2019 to 2022 with recurrent, treatment resistant depression, experiencing violations in her human and medical rights in one of the psychiatric hospitals she has been in ( Fortunately her mother began to feel better after the last hospitalization in April 2022 ). Ms Hagianu attempts to fight against violation of her mom's rights (through contacting government's structures, NGOs or the press) were unsuccessful, so she is learning through different GMHPN platforms how to succeed advocating for people with Mental Health challenges , as she is a mental health peer herself.
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Hagianu Raluca Mirela (Romania)
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As an individual with intimate experience with major depression disorder and generalised anxiety disorder; I have spent much of my adult years struggling and finding methods to manage myself. As I have grown to be an emotionally intelligent and determined person. I have embraced the importance and values of having proper support and knowledge of mental health as well as how pertinent they are for the betterment for a stable and healthy community. The inequality on the availability of mental healthcare continues to drive me to explore the topic. So that I may aid others who can benefit from it.
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Numan Miah (United Kingdom)
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South East Asia
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Mr. Hussain, Child protection Lawyer and a Mental health advocate from Kashmir- India. He has 6 years of experience in the field of Child protection Mechanism and worked with National Human Rights Commission of India as Legal & Research Consultant (2016-18). In 2019, He joined Mental health And Psychosocial support program in Kashmir where mostly he takes part in mental health advocacy, awareness, mental health law, and policy Research. He has experience in capacity building, intra agency mechanism, and integration of mental health component. He is National, international Awardee on Human Rights advocacy, and Child Protection.
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Mujtaba Hussain (India)
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Mr Sugianto has bipolar disorder and a mental health activist in Indonesia. He had a long journey to survive and recover from his mental health problem. During the worst phases of his disorder, he was shackled to a bed in a primary health clinic for about a month - a practice called pasung in Indonesia. Being chained due to the lack of knowledge of his family, he has been advocating mental health issues and fighting against the stigma towards people with mental illness and mental health problem for more than a decade. He has been involved in policy making and advocating to abolish chaining (pasung) in Indonesia. He is continuing to become a mental health advocate, campaigning for mental health awareness in Indonesia.
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Agus Sugianto (Indonesia)
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Western Pacific
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Nicole K. is a mental health advocate and founder of The Tapestry Project SG -- a ground-up, non-profit online publication that champions first-person accounts of every day Singaporeans touched by mental illness and recovery. The Tapestry Project SG was founded in 2014, inspired by Nicole’s personal struggle with mental ill-health. Previously a freelance writer, Nicole firmly believes that telling the stories behind our statistics can make mental health issues real, relatable and preventable. As such, Tapestry publishes authentic stories that serve to restore hope and dignity to individuals and families struggling with the realities of mental health challenges. Such stories also aim to create conversations surrounding mental health, including research and recovery. Tapestry also empowers individuals to find agency as they craft their own narratives for resilience through their Re: Story programme – a narrative journaling programme that has been taught at various arts and community events. Besides advocating for mental health awareness through mainstream media such as The Straits Times, TODAY, Channel News Asia, and Lianhe Zaobao. Nicole collaborates with local voluntary welfare organizations, tertiary institutions, hospitals and government agencies in mental health education and awareness. Nicole has spoken at international conferences and serves in the executive committee of the Global Mental Health Peer Network as representative of Singapore. Nicole has a London School of Economics degree in management (2005), and a Monash University graduate diploma in psychology (2011). Nicole is also a certified adult education facilitator and recently graduated with a Masters in Creative Writing awarded by Goldsmiths University.
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Nicole Kay (Singapore)
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Miss Ayius is in her 30's who has witnessed first-hand the traumas of Mental Health due to various factors, having witnessed family, friends and acquaintance undergo various mental health issues. She would like to contribute whatever way possible to address the issue and raise awareness of the issue that is somewhat a stigma in the society due to the lack of awareness and various factors. She wants to use her personal experience, as well the experiences of others, to help build a better more productive society where Mental Health is just as important as other health issues, most times the misdiagnosis can lead to further problems if not treated properly and addressed in a more productive manner.
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Annitha Ayius (Papua New Guinea)
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