Olive Mental Health Wellness Center

The chance to get free training and funds is both helpful and exciting which makes it a great confidence booster to go ahead with the project. Should I be selected, I would buy property or land from where operations can begin. I would thereafter engage a landscaper and other required service persons like architects to help design and bring the project to life. Having support will enable me to get the necessary guidance as I advance with the project, in addition to different ideas and questions that will lead to the success of the project.

I completed my high school in Kitwe, Zambia, where I was born. After falling ill and lacking funds to complete my university education in International Business in California, USA, I came back to Zambia where I recuperated from and tried to move on, through work. Later, I went back to university in Windhoek, Namibia where I earned a BA degree in Tourism Management (Honours) which is what I had always wanted to pursue.

My university years were filled with ups and downs due to my ill health but I persevered and graduated with an even greater need to market my country's beauty. Fortunately, I was selected and certified in a Business and Entrepreneurship Development leadership course through YALI in addition to other certified business courses. However, living with a Mental illness for so long and experiencing the difficult effects it has had in my life has really opened my eyes to what other underprivileged disabled persons go through. Filled with empathy, I begun to work on a business model that would incorporate the use of tourism services to lessen the burden of mental disabilities on society and enable me to advocate for good mental health and reduce vulnerability.

The problem at hand is the rise of mental health illness and discrimination. News reports of by-products such as suicides and lack of education on how to maintain good mental health continue to rise.  

Mental illness knows no borders, everyone and anyone is affected in some way. Zambia, has only two mental health facilities that also serve as teaching hospitals which are usually out of medicine stock, overcrowded, and offer no privacy. Some patients therefore opt to seek treatment in other countries that they could have received in Zambia had situations been better.

The Mental Health Wellness Center will therefore incorporate tourism products (such as spas, hiking gardens, yoga, thermal treatments etc.) as the main tools to deal with disseminating knowledge about mental health wellness and treating it. Talks will be provided with different activities as retreats to Zambian tourist destinations organized. Onsite will be counsellors and hopefully other medical staff who can treat patients available therefore decreasing the burden on the other hospitals. Depending on certifications/registrations, if possible medication will also be stocked to be sold at reasonable prices. All this will be planned in such a way as to allow for underprivileged to afford use of services. 

Wellness tourism to tackle mental health illnesses and education is the new approach I am attesting for. It will encourage consumption of local tourism with the aim to better mental health and decrease discrimination.

To be losing the lives of people that could have been saved with just an amount of care is unnecessary. People suffer and deal with problems differently. Therefore, it is my hope that through the Center will make a positive difference especially during these hard times when the economy has plummeted and Covid-19 is an additional problem.

Firstly, I have purchased a folder especially dedicated to this project. This will enable me to keep the progress organized and pitch my ideas properly as it will be solely dedicated to this cause, and for future reference, say should I need to provide proof of payments to well wishers. Currently, I am looking at different sites and designs with hopes to soon discuss a location plan with stakeholders to be involved. This will enable me to especially plan how much money I will need to raise to bring the Center to life. I am also in talks with medical staff and people from my network to see how we can work together for a common good.