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Leroy Dzenga

Arts Reporter

Recently-licensed Zimpapers Television Network (ZTN) will tomorrow host a concert to raise awareness on mental health issues.

Titled “My Mental Health Zim live Concert”, the gig will be headlined by Alexio Kawara, Poptain, Nutty O and BaShupi.

The virtual show is a collaboration between African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI), the Friendship Bench and the Zimbabwe Musicians Union (ZIMU).

Communications official for Amari Trust, Biggy Dziro, said the concert was feeding into global efforts to ensure enough conversations on mental health issues, especially in this taxing time of Covid-19.

“Mental health should be given priority now more than ever, given the current Covid-19 pandemic,” he said. “The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted our daily lives directly affecting our mental well-being.

“Due to the infections, Covid-19 fatalities, and economic factors such as job losses, the general populace of Zimbabwe were exposed to heightened risks of contracting common mental disorders. Thus the importance of prioritising and talking about mental health within our communities.”

Online concerts have proven to be popular during the lockdown period, garnering an average of 20 000 live views on popular pages, including ZTN. These organisations behind the show saw it as an opportunity to harness the numbers to convey the message.

“Edutainment is a tested and tried compelling tool to reach out and engage communities on crucial matters, hence this initiative engaged the creative arts to help reach out and spread the mental health message,” said Dziro.

“Amari and its partners believe in using novel initiatives to engage communities on mental health and the creative arts particularly music is a powerful edutainment tool.”

The concert serves as a belated commemoration for Mental Health Day, which was on October 10.

There have been calls for mental health awareness to be heightened as suicide cases are on the increase, as well as difficult to explain behaviour like murder and violent crimes.