That award was given out on the 16th of August 2014, a day before my brother’s corpse arrived from the USA. I wasn’t obviously at the reception, but I got to meet Amy Banda, the show initiator and host, a few days later.
It was so so touching, that I received an award of this magnitude and for such a cause! It reads:
‘For her courage to inspire generations with her true story…’
Henceforth, I have not one, but two stories to use in my continuous and courageous journey to inspire. I am frantically writing my brother’s story as I lived it, and I just hope I live to see it published.
To this effect, I was equally very humbled and delighted to be invited to the radio show frank talk, to talk about mental health. In my country and in Africa to a large extent, such subjects are still ‘simply put taboo’. They belong to ‘Soothsayers and Exorcists’ and Shaggy ones like us, are ‘demon possesed’.
It is for this reason, that I recently posted on my being mentally ill before the fact (the fact being an official diagnosis). There are various degrees and types of mental illness and I am bent on stigmatizing stigma in being so open and dare say proud of my mental challenges and my efforts to thrive nonetheless.
Dear gentle readers and followers, we don’t make of life what it thrusts us, but we make of it how we deal with what it thrusts us. I have come so far, and my journey ahead seems so stretched out. I have lots of aspirations, but equally several challenges. I am a woman of faith, I careless about who thinks the contrary. I simply wish us all the best.
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