What is the initiative?
My initiative is a community-centered initiative preventing and addressing postpartum depression among women in peri-urban Dakar through culturally-grounded Mother Wellness Circles, peer support, and integrated mental health services. Rooted in cultural safety, these circles offer women a space to gather, share their lived experiences, and hold each other free from judgment and from silence. As we say in Senegal, nitt nitt moy garabam, meaning people are each other’s medicine.
This initiative is a movement of women rising informed and empowered in their mental health, able to advocate for their own wellness on their own terms, who heal, then turn around and reach for the next woman’s hand.
What is your connection to your chosen community?
I was born and raised in Dakar, surrounded by women who ran businesses, fed families, raised children, and held everything together while carrying their pain in silence. Growing up, I witnessed how cultural expectations, patriarchal structures, and the invisibility of mental health conspired to keep women from thriving. As a woman, my connection to this community feels like belonging. It is a personal devotion to the women who shaped me. This work is my way of showing up for them the way they have always shown up for everyone else, by building something that finally holds the women who have always held everything.
What are you looking forward to this year?
I look forward to the lives I can tangibly touch. Sitting across from women who feel isolated and watching them leave a Wellness Circle knowing they are not alone, that transformation is what drives me. Most of all, I look forward to this initiative becoming something the community owns, not mine to give, but theirs to lead.