For Vivian Anyango Aola, mental health advocacy is deeply personal, shaped by early experiences witnessing emotional distress without adequate support. She works at St. Daniel Comboni Mission in Nairobi, Kenya, supporting people living with mental health conditions and psychosocial disabilities.
In her role, Vivian focuses on creating safe, inclusive spaces and challenging stigma through dialogue, listening, and community engagement. She describes mental health as something everyone experiences, emphasizing the need for empathy, understanding, and equal treatment.
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To strengthen her advocacy, she completed the WHO Quality Rights in Mental Health course via the World Health Organization Academy. The training promotes rights-based, person-centred approaches and supports recovery-oriented mental health care.
Vivian highlights the importance of language and cultural accessibility in mental health services, noting that local-language resources build trust and improve access to care. The course has also been shown to significantly improve attitudes toward people with mental health conditions globally.
She believes that rights-based education is key to transforming mental health systems, reinforcing dignity, inclusion, and recovery-oriented care.
