This year Varsity Sports, together with the Ithemba Foundation, will take a proactive role in raising awareness of mental health in South Africa. The SpeakUp campaign is aimed at all Varsity Sports sports people and fans and will be introduced at the fourth annual Varsity Cricket tournament, which begins on Monday, 29 January.
“Findings by the Mental Health Information Centre on student wellness showed that nearly 40% of students on a specific campus suffered from some type of mental illness,” said Duitser Bosman, CEO of Varsity Sports, “be it depression, anxiety disorder or social anxiety disorder.”
Varsity Sports to host SpeakUp briefings with all all participating athletes across all seven Varsity Sports codes, like cricket, athletics, hockey, netball, football, 7s rugby and mountain biking. “We will also ensure that spectators at all Varsity Sports tournaments are exposed to the message. Each player will wear a bright green piece of clothing to highlight our focus on mental health in 2018.”
Varsity Sports also plans to distribute information about positive mental health across its social media platforms and website with a comprehensive list of all the help centres available to students across South Africa.
“We’re also calling all previous sports stars who’ve suffered [from]mental health to step forward and join us as we reach out to the youth of South Africa,” added Bosman.
Stellenbosch professor Lizette Rabe, who is the founder of the non-profit Ithemba Foundation, added that there is a great need to destigmatise mental health and for young people to take care of their mental health in the same way they take care of their physical health. “We need to normalise and humanise mental health,” adds Rabe. “Sports people are used to treating physical injuries, but not much care is given to mental injuries. Mental health is as important and needs to be addressed on a bigger scale in South Africa.” The Ithemba Foundation has two public benefit goals: to raise awareness of depression and related mental health disorders such as anxiety as clinical, biological diseases, and to support research. Ithemba means Hope in isiXhosa.
Varsity Sports will publish the full list of help centres available for each university, where students can receive assistance in terms of mental health. For the full list, visit: http://varsitysportssa.com/spe
For more about Varsity Sports’ SpeakUP campaign:
www.varsitysportssa.com/speaku
Official hashtag: #SpeakUp
