Today’s world has seen the unthinkable and done the unimaginable. With records in all fields of endeavour, it remains a mystery how the conquest of the ‘outer world’ is hardly reflected in realities of the ‘inner world’. It appears as though the further man ‘goes out’ to master his exterior situation the further he gets from mastering his internal condition.
This truth is best observed in the world of mental health disorders. Among the common mental disorders, the incidence of depression stands out and often time progresses into other conditions such as alcohol abuse and suicidality. One thing seems common to all forms and expressions of depression: the strong sense of hopelessness. With a growing incidence of depression the world over, it seems safe to say the world is progressively being confronted by a crisis of hope.
It was Orison Swett Marden who once said: ‘There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as an expectation of something tomorrow’. Today, more than ever before, hope is the most valuable commodity that is important to one as it is to all. At Gede(interestingly ‘Gede’ stands for hope in Fulani), bringing hope to those who need it the most is a priority, and with present endeavours for addressing mental health challenges among people living with HIV/AIDS, I think I feel really proud to be curbing, with Gede Foundation, one of today’s major crisis of hope in my dear country, Nigeria.
By Ebhohimen Kizito