Mental Wellness with Miss Nkosi

20/11/2025

✨ Welcome to Mental Wellness with Miss Nkosi ✨

If you’re new here, thank you for stopping by. This space was created with one intention: to make mental wellness accessible, relatable, and safe for every person navigating life in Southern and East Africa and beyond.

Mental Wellness with Miss Nkosi is a platform dedicated to empowering young people, working professionals, parents, students, and anyone who has ever felt unseen or overwhelmed. Through honest conversations, culturally grounded mental health education, and community-driven support, this page exists to remind you that your wellbeing matters — deeply and consistently.

However, this journey didn’t start today.

It began with a little girl who couldn’t walk past injustice without feeling it in her chest.
A girl who organised anti-bullying campaigns in junior school because she believed everyone deserved to feel safe.
A teenager who stood at HIV & AIDS Candlelight Memorials, honouring lives and reminding her peers that compassion is a responsibility.
A young woman who marched in Stop the Silence campaigns in solidarity with survivors of intimate partner violence because silence has never saved anyone.
A university student who built social inclusion programmes and health campaigns because she saw how many young people were struggling quietly.

And now, as a young professional, that same girl — now “Miss Nkosi” — is committed to creating supportive, inclusive, and mentally healthy spaces in our workplaces and communities. The work has simply evolved with each chapter of life.

This page is a continuation of that lifelong mission:
✔️ to make information understandable
✔️ to break stigma gently but firmly
✔️ to hold space for real stories
✔️ to centre joy, healing, and resilience
✔️ to build a community where people feel safe in their identities and experiences

Whether you’re here to learn, to heal, to unlearn, or simply to feel less alone — welcome.
This is your space too.

Let’s grow, rest, and thrive together. 💛

— Miss Nkosi

06/11/2025

Hey everyone, I’m Cheryl Nkosi!

If you’re new here, welcome to this space! I’m so glad you’re joining the conversation. I wear a few different hats, these include: mental health advocate, gender equality champion, storyteller, and the founder of Mental Wellness with Miss Nkosi, a platform that connects young people across Southern and East Africa to mental health resources and open, stigma-free dialogue.

My journey in advocacy began back in 2014 through a UNFPA Multimedia Workshop while I was still in school. Since then, I’ve had the privilege of working with communities, organisations, and policy spaces to push for more inclusive health systems — especially for women and youth.

I also serve as a voice in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), and recently received a Founder of the Year Awards (FOYA) nomination for the work I am doing to make mental wellness accessible.

Through my podcast Careful As Chronic and community projects, I aim to spark honest conversations about chronic illness, womanhood, and purpose — reminding us that healing and impact can coexist.

This page is where I share reflections on advocacy, faith, mental health, and personal growth — the real, unfiltered moments behind the journey.

💛 I’d love to hear from you too. Tell me — what drew you to this page, and what kind of conversations would you like us to explore together?

10/10/2025

🌍 Happy World Mental Health Day 💚

Today is a reminder that sustainability isn’t only about the planet — it’s also about people.

A truly sustainable world is one where mental wellbeing is prioritised, where women’s rights are protected, and where care is recognised as the foundation of every thriving community.

Too often, we talk about development goals, innovation, and progress without acknowledging that none of it is sustainable if people — especially women — are burning out, silencing their pain, or navigating systems that overlook their emotional and physical wellbeing.

As someone who advocates for gender equality and mental health across Southern and East Africa, I’ve seen how deeply interconnected these issues are. When women and girls have access to mental healthcare, reproductive health rights, and safe spaces to heal, communities flourish. Economies grow stronger. The future becomes more inclusive.

This World Mental Health Day, I’m reminded that mental wellness is not a luxury — it’s a human right. Let’s build workplaces, policies, and communities that honour that truth.

💚 For every woman balancing purpose with pain — may you never forget that rest is resistance, and healing is sustainability.

Let’s keep the conversation going. How are you investing in mental sustainability in your community or organisation?

12/09/2025

Indigenous mental health - grandmothers healing community with Zimbabwe-based psychiatrist Dr. Dixon Chibanda - Friendship Bench

12/09/2025

September is Su***de Awareness Month: Are our workplaces truly safe for mental health?

For the past eleven years I have been a mental health advocate. This work has taken me into conversations about wellbeing, social inclusion and community development, and it remains deeply personal to me. Su***de Awareness Month is not just a campaign on the calendar. It is a reminder that we all have a part to play, especially in the places where we spend most of our time: our workplaces.

Why this matters!

Work shapes lives. A safe workplace is more than policies on paper. It is a space where people can speak honestly, reach out for help and feel supported. When that happens, teams are stronger and people are healthier.

Understanding the terms.

Su***de is the act of ending one’s own life.
Suicidal ideation is when someone thinks about or plans su***de, even if they never act on those thoughts. It is an important warning sign that should never be ignored.
A mental health care facility can be a clinic, a counselling centre or even a workplace programme that connects staff to trained professionals.

What we know:

Globally, 75% of su***de deaths are among men while 25% are among women. Research suggests women may have some biological advantages in handling stress, yet this does not make women’s mental health any less important. Substance misuse and violent behaviour often make things worse and can push people from distress into suicidal ideation or even su***de itself.

The bigger picture:

In some countries, su***de attempts are still treated as crimes. These laws add stigma and keep people from getting the support they need. Encouragingly, countries such as India, Singapore, Pakistan, Malaysia and Ghana have started to decriminalise su***de attempts, recognising that this is a public health issue, not a criminal one.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 3 on good health and wellbeing, call on us to reduce premature mortality and promote mental health for all.

What organisations can do
• Provide confidential counselling and Employee Assistance Programmes.
• Train leaders to recognise when someone might be struggling.
• Offer workshops, check-ins and open conversations.
• Make it clear that mental health is part of overall health.

My call to action:

September is a chance to pause and reflect. Lives can change when compassion is matched with action. My own journey has shown me that healing happens when people are included, supported and given access to care. I invite organisations, leaders and advocates to step up as allies and create workplaces where people can connect, heal and thrive.

Also follow me here on Facebook for access to affordable mental healthcare services in East and Southern Africa

07/08/2025

WOTD

25/07/2025

Quote of the day

24/07/2025

09/07/2025

Reimagining Development: The Intersection of Mental Health, Youth Advocacy, AI & Inclusive Feminist Action

When we hear intersectionality, many think of policy briefs or theory. Some may link it to trade or politics. However, in the feminist and development spaces I move through, intersectionality is a lived reality. It’s a lens, a language, and a responsibility.

For those who’ve followed my journey, you’ll know my work sits at the intersection of mental health advocacy and international development but it goes beyond outreach. It touches gender justice, climate action, SRHR, and equitable access to wellness across Southern and East Africa.

That’s why, for me, intersectionality isn’t optional it’s essential. We can’t talk about wellness without naming the structural and social barriers in the way. We can’t empower youth without addressing the systems that silence them.

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the role of AI in development. One statistic hit hard: only approximately 12% of non-profits use generative AI. Meanwhile, the private sector is racing ahead. (GOMYCODE 2025)

AI can streamline support, improve SRHR access, and extend mental health services but right now, it mostly benefits those with constant internet and digital literacy.

What about those without?

We need inclusive, sustainable AI tools; ones that work offline, speak local languages, and serve the underserved. Innovation that excludes isn’t innovation, it’s injustice.

This is the heart of Mental Wellness with Miss Nkosi. We’re building informed, inclusive mental health ecosystems that reflect cultural context — one young person, one safe space, one local solution at a time.

We must also talk about youth advocacy. Young people aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow. They are today’s urgency.

Investing in youth means:
• Training & exposure
• Mentorship & skills building
• Soft skills like etiquette, comportment, and emotional intelligence

However, this must be inclusive, decolonised, and gender-sensitive. Etiquette isn’t about conforming to Western norms. It’s about presence, dignity, empathy… grounded in identity.

Over the past year, I’ve learned from African feminist leaders who embody this multidimensional strength! From lawyers, educators, mental health champions and more who live in the “both/and,” not the “either/or.”

So I leave you with these questions:
1. Are we designing for the margins?
2. Using tech ethically and equitably?
3. Prioritising mental health in development?
4. Genuinely empowering youth — or just giving them seats?

Development without mental health is incomplete. Feminism without inclusion is shallow. Innovation without equity is unjust.

Let’s build deeper. Together.

💬 If you’re working across mental health, AI, feminist development, or youth leadership — let’s connect.