This summer I started a campaign. 

I’m turning my personal experience – victories and losses included – into hopefully change for the better, into a bright light onto what we can only hope is the way ahead. And here it is:

SAY is a campaign striving to recognize and legitimize the fight against mental illness (and for harmony of mind) within a South Asian cultural context. It is a knowledge raising campaign that, by sharing stories, providing solid platforms of support, and just initiating discourse, hopes to change the stigma associated with mental illness. SAY is carrying a resounding voice, reaching out to those negotiating issues of mental wellness and filling up the reserves (creatively or practically) of those family/friends already offering care and encouragement.

In the next few months of the campaign, we’re going to be talking, saying, expressing, discussing, reporting, creating, integrating, engaging in South Asian communities. We’ll share our stories with you, showcase the courage it takes to cope with and overcome the various conditions that result from mental illness. We’ll empower, inspire and clarify. We’ll say what’s been on our minds and say it beautifully.