My Leadership in Action project this summer took place at SOS Children’s Village in Cape Town, South Africa. My project involved designing and running a mental health programme for a group of teen girls, where I used art and creative expression to teach a wide range of mental health related topics, from healthy relationships, to setting boundaries. Mental health has always been deeply important to me, and is an area I have worked hard to promote and teach in recent years - it is an area especially vital for vulnerable youth and those with challenging backgrounds, which was the target audience for my programme at SOS this summer.

I worked closely with the kids in my group to help build up their emotional resilience, and to give them the tools they would need to manage stress and their mental health in the future, including considering how lifestyle can impact mental health, and how to ask for help – something that many young people often struggle with. The first few weeks mostly consisted of me getting to know the group, and running team building games and activities to try to encourage them to open up, while I tried to lightly introduce some concepts surrounding mental health, like the importance of active listening and communication. This was then followed by teaching on mental health related topics, where we had discussions, shared experiences, and followed up each session with a related creative activity, such as journaling, or making educational posters.

The aim by the end of the project was to have them develop and run their own mental health class, where they would teach another group of kids at the Children’s home about a mental health topic of their choice. The girls I worked with put in so much effort to design their own short workshops, and it was amazing to see them running sessions independently, and teaching others what they had learned from my course. The purpose of this was to ensure my project was sustainable and could be continued on past when I left, and I hope this project went a long way in making mental health knowledge more accessible at Cape Town SOS Children’s Village.

While at the Children’s Village, I had so much support from both the staff at the Village, and from the other Laidlaw scholars who were also running their own programmes – with Jane running dance sessions, Felicia running a storytelling and literacy programme, and Youness, back for his second year to run both his comedy sessions with the kids, and this LiA for us Laidlaw scholars (Thank you Youness for all the work you put into organising and planning this project). There were so many challenges I faced as part of this LiA, and I couldn’t have done it without these three to help and support me through the difficult moments, whether that was a session that went wrong because of kids fighting, or having to completely change my session plans because of a last minute event we weren’t told was happening.

Alongside this main project, I also ran other projects throughout my time there, including running netball sessions during the school holidays, teaching intro piano lessons, running a DSLR Photography course, and helping at an outreach programme in Khayelitsha – all of which I hope contributed to broadening the kids’ horizons, and providing them with further skills for their future.

Thank you to SOS Children’s Village for welcoming me in, and to all the staff for providing me so much support and advice – the success of my project would not have happened without everyone there! My 6 weeks at SOS was amazing, and I had so many incredible experiences that have taught me so much. I really hope that at some point in the future I can return to continue my work of making mental health knowledge more accessible at SOS Cape Town.