Protect your mental health, group advises women

A group known as “Calabar Mums” has urged women to protect their mental health as they go about their day-to-day activities.

The founder of the group, Mrs. Victoria Ekpo, made the call during an event tagged “Big Meet” in Calabar on Thursday.

She said women engage in many daily routine activities to ensure that their children, the family, and the home are in order, in addition to working or engaging in business.

According to her, the activities can be mentally taxing for women and can affect their mental health.

She said that the annual “Big Meet” event is a gathering to get the women relaxed, unwind, learn, and go home with impactful lessons that will make them healthier, stronger, and their families better organised.

Ekpo said, “Today, the women are out here to relax, away from their daily routine of taking care of everyone in the home.

“We also use this opportunity to carry out social responsibilities like we did last year, distributing food items like rice, garri, yam, and other food condiments to over 200 women in Calabar Municipality and Calabar South.

“We try to reach out to women engaged by the state government to sweep the streets and the roads to impact them.

“This year, we are making it bigger to reach more women and support them; these women do so much to ensure our roads are clean, so we want to support them.”

Also, Mrs. Enobong UnoAsuquo, a legal practitioner and member of the group, said there is a need to ensure women are mentally healthy “because the mental state of a woman helps in producing a stable family.

“When the family is stable, stronger homes are built, which transcends to communities and the nation at large.

“When women get support, families, marriages, homes, and communities get support, so, as a group, we teach women to be intentional about their mental health to be stable, especially in decision-making.”

On her part, Mrs. Irene Bangwell, co-founder of Knosk N100-a-Day School, said it is important for women to take care of their mental health so they can positively guide their children.

She said mothers spend more time with the children, hence the need for them to be equipped with the skills to protect themselves and the family.

Supreme News reports that the event, which featured lectures, debates, and panel discussions to encourage women entrepreneurs, also featured games to help women relax.