Mrs Ronesia A. Nait-Saidi

I am Mrs Ronesia A. Nait-Saidi, married to my husband, Omar Nait-Saidi for 22 years and we have two young adult university students.

My journey with the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation began in 2009-completed my ambassador-training in August 2016. I am a woman of many passions-but am mostly passionate about being a host. I also realise today that being in my garden brings a lot of joy and peace. My vegetable garden is an extension of me, and it where I get my healing. Thank you IJR for introducing us to Food Gardens. I feel that I blend in extremely well with nature.

My innate passion has always been to contribute to the enhancement of a person’s needs, dignity and self-worth. I’ve been a compassionate carer who transformed my way of thinking in a more conscience-stricken manner thanks to the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. My nursing abilities related to working with others, cooperating with others, and being more efficient in communication. On the 17th of January I voluntary morally supported a fifty-year woman and her daughter at the Calitzdorp Magistrate Court. The case is based on Domestic Violence.

I’ve learnt at the Breaking-Barriers Conference… bringing balance is important and that poor refers to charity. Charity is an indication of disempowering people. And that it became important to define- poor? Also have I learnt to change the power structure is of vital importance-that the voices of the marginalized people are being heard through the means of advocacy. And that one can advocate immediately once you see something wrong.

EXPLORING THE SELF

Now that both my children are at university, I am being driven closer and closer to become in a way, silent. ‘’A silent mind sees to contain nothing at all’’.

Memory is a creative act-it creates new images and new ways’‘

We constantly do build patterns of intelligence and look through them to tell us what is real. If we see pain, there is pain, but if we don’t, the pain will be gone.

It’s of believe that nature did not make us ignorant of our deeper self

In this vast technology developed world, we are certainly drifting away from the true pleasures in life:

• Love
• Enthusiasm
• Laughter
• Freedom
• Helping one another
• And saving planet earth
• Nourishing your body, mind, and spirit

BEING CREDIBLE TO YOURSELF

Credibility is something we can do about. We can choose to increase the self-trust that flows from the inside out and affects every dimension of our lives-and the lives of to others, as well.
Quoted by Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merril in The Speed of Trust

Self-trust is all about credibility it’s about developing the integrity, intent, capabilities, and results that make you believable, both to yourself and to others.

Thanks to the Mental Health session conducted by Danielle Hofmeester.

Zinzi Mtjeketje

Zinzi Mtjeketje: Talking about one of the topics that was covered during the conference and how beneficial it is to you and how it will benefit your community?

Mental Health: When it comes to a person’s wellbeing it is very important to be mindful of the fact that a person’s mental wellbeing is as important as the physical wellbeing is. The starting point in the discussion of mental health is to note that mental health is a multi-layered concept which includes issues such as a person’s emotional, psychological, and social well-being. How a person comprehends and reasons, it also affects one’s behaviour and how they feel. It does not only assist in how a person respond in stressful situations, how one relates to other people and also how one reaches a decision-making point and the process leading to that point. It is therefore significant for one to be aware of the fact that mental health is important in all the phases of a person’s life. However, the South African Depression and Anxiety Group points out that mental illness on the other hand is made up of numerous mental health conditions that have an impact on one’s moods, process a comprehending and understand and how they react to certain things and lastly how a person generally behaves.

The World Health Organisations predicts that 1 in 4 people will at some point in their lives suffer from some form of a mental issue. It has gone on to caution that conditions concerning to mental health have shown exponential growth globally.

Whereby there is a 13% increase in mental health conditions leading to 2017. This is besides the average international government funding which has decreased to less than 2%.

One of the reasons that I have chosen to write about the importance of mental health and mental wellbeing is because I had a Damascus or what some may term a light bulb moment in terms of my own mental health and how much I have neglected my own mental well-being and how due to this I not only feel like I cannot mentally function and how I am gradually becoming unproductive, because I am physically tired most of the time I found that somehow my mental healthiness contributes immensely to my physical wellbeing. So, I would say that for me the session of mental health has not only opened my eyes about the importance of mental health, but it has made me aware of the tremendous impact mental health on a person’s overall wellbeing, on the wellbeing of a family and how one interacts with the community as a whole.

Therefore, I would like to believe that my community would benefit from such a session because the issue of mental health is not only a challenge in my community but in most Black South African communities. Hence to date we still hear, read and see people who are suffering from mental conditions being treated in a hostile way because people are not conscientised on the issue of mental health issues.

In conclusion as an Ambassador, I would like to believe that the challenge of mental health can be addressed in ways which will be helpful to my community: Firstly, If there are enough platforms created for open conversations on mental health issues and Secondly these open conversations would lead to the promotion of mental well-being in general and people being able to go out to seek for help and for them to be rightly diagnosed. Thirdly once such brave conversation happens, I would like to believe that it would not be difficult for members of the community to identify whether a person suffers from any form of mental condition, and it will also become easy for one to know the right channels that a member of a community needs to follow to gain access to health facilities and psychosocial services that are available freely.

As pointed out in the introduction it is very important to openly have dialogues where issues of mental health are discussed, purely because most people’s mental health has been compromised, some have not only lost their jobs, others have lost their source of income, while others lost loved ones and their livelihood during the past two years due to COVID-19, it should be noted that COVID-19 is not the source to South Africa’s large number of people suffering mental health. Therefore, platforms such as workshops whereby participants are educated on what are the different types of mental issues and the types of help, they could get and where they could go to get assistance. These workshops will not only help with providing participant with information on the types of mental conditions and the different types of help that are offered but it will teach participants from different communities to refrain stigmatising people who are suffering from mental illness. Lastly it will teach participants to live with people with mental health in a way that is much safer, welcoming and understanding without making them feel like they are not part of the community.

It is a proven fact that when people have a culture of talking about their struggles openly it becomes easy for them and people around them to know symptoms of certain mental conditions and for them to be able to point out what may trigger those with mental issues. It will also make it easy for people around them to even go out to seek professional help once they see someone who is diagnosed with a mental condition and also it for those who have symptoms but have not yet been diagnosed to get professional help, essentially meaning that mental condition will be diagnosed accordingly.

Lastly once such conversations have happened, it would not become difficult for members of the community to identify whether a person suffers from any mental condition and also it will make it easy for one to know the right processes that members of the community to follow to gain access to health facilities and psychosocial services that are available at a reasonable cost to freely. Another facet that such conversations reveals is that it eliminates the misconceptions that people have on people suffering from different mental conditions.

No community is immune to mental health conditions therefore conversations on mental health are important, not only awareness of emotional pain, post- traumatic stress, anxiety and depression, but rather understanding the different types of mental conditions. With the globally pandemic (COVID-19) saw the rise on mental health issues especially among groups that are regarded as marginalised such as young people, poverty-stricken people. Because these groups make up a large part of the country’s population there is no way that conversation on mental health can be swept under the carpet would mean that the situation worsens and the mistreatment that people suffering from mental health conditions will continue.