team members of empower minds

ali raza khan

Living in a Muslim majority country and being from YPLHIV, gender and religious minority group Ali had to face discrimination, stigma, bullying and exclusion by his family, friends, colleagues and social gatherings. Due to his experiences he was becoming suicidal when against all odds he started working for the betterment of his own community of YPLHIV, gender and religious minorities. He believes in the present scenario mental health issues among young people are increasing drastically to counter it. He joined M4M to better understand mental health and ways to counter it.

dr. padam

Padam has studied his master’s in public health from the Indian Institute of Public Health and Bachelors in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery from Sardar Patel University. He works in the SPIRIT project as Research Associate at Mehsana Gujarat and is involved in onsite data management. Before this, Padam has work experience of three years in Health system Research. He has presented posters and oral papers at various national and international conferences. His interest area includes interlinkage of mental health and infectious disease, health systems research, project management, advocacy, and data management. In leisure time, he enjoys watching documentaries and gardening.

purni maya rai

Purni Maya Rai is one of the members of the team “Empower Minds”. She is an ordinary youth from a small country called Bhutan. She did her Bachelors degree in Environment and Climate Studies. She is an empath who is having her shares of struggle in the world and through this platform she believes she can gain and give the support to have an empowering mind.

ram dulip

Ram Dulip from Sri Lanka. He is Mister Sri Lanka for Mister Earth International 2017 .Also a professional model , an actor in the Sri Lankan entertainment industry and also a social media influencer . While he was the supporting for equality and against the discrimination of LGBT community in Sri Lanka ,  he badly became a victim of social media bullying by a youtuber . He was a main target of homophobic youtubers in Sri Lanka. But he never stoped on doing what he wanted to do.Later on he proudly came out as Gay publicly also as an one of the most influencing Gay Celebrity in Sri Lanka who broke the silence against the Discrimination.

sangay tshomo

Miss Sangay Tshomo is a graduate who pursued her degree in B.Sc. Environment and Climate Studies. She has volunteered and participated in many programmes and workshops related to mental health in her country. She believes mental health has a significant effect on development of young people and their social and economic integration into society. And moreover, in her country, mental health disorders draw little public attention than those that are related to physical health. Hence, she wants to encourage those people across the nation who are at risks of turning unproductive and antisocial to fight back and show their true selves and their Potential that are suppressed due to various bad experiences, she joined M4M to improve and learn more about mental health so she can help her people find their true selves.

 

Dr. Smruti prakash mishra

Mr. Smruti is from Bhubaneswar, Odisha state. He is  a dentist who is gradually inclined to the Public Health field. A strong aspiring Public Health professional with a Master of Public Health degree with an interest in immunization, infectious disease, non communicable disease from Indian institute of public health Gandhinagar. 

Information linked to mental health. As a Public Health professional he is more interested in the Mental Health field also. One of the biggest reasons he chose to be a part of this program is because he enjoys helping people. There is no doubt that mental wellness is fascinating. Learning how the brain works is something that many people enjoy. He hopes by involving in this “me for myself” program he  can contribute something and make some difference in society.

 

valeria dauni

 

Valeria Dauni is currently a Counselling student at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji. She is a volunteer with religious ministries but recently joined Me4 Myself to help build on her knowledge on mental health and also confidence to share about the topic. There is a stigma surrounding mental health issues talks in Fijian adolescents  and she hopes to improve this and help young men and women share about their struggles with their mental health and prioritize it also. Young people are not only leaders of tomorrow but she believes that they are leaders now.  If we all lend a hand and encourage young people,  guide them and share our knowledge with them regarding mental health issues and coping mechanisms and helping them overcome,  Valeria believes that this will allow young people to reach their fullest potential and also start this ripple effect of helping others thus contributing to a healthy society as well.