Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (MANI)

MANI is proud to be the largest youth Mental Health network in West Africa with over 1,500 active youth volunteers across 18 Chapters in 18 out of 36 states in Nigeria. MANI is also the largest provider of crisis support services in Nigeria, with direct support given to over 40,000 persons (>80% between the ages of 10 and 25) in 4 years of setting up the service. MANI was recognized by The Elders as one of their 100 ‘Sparks of hope’ across the world and received a Nelson Mandela-Graca Machel Innovation Award in 2017, in the best civil society organization category. MANI is proud of the difference it makes, as exemplified by the kind of testimonial we get from our service users: “MANI played a huge role in my survival,” “I had someone to talk to when I was isolated,” “We got talking and I felt so much better.”

Offline, MANI runs conversation cafes across 18 states, educating more than a thousand young people every month on mental health and mental health conditions; and have trained over 5,000 employees and over 30,000 students, parents, and teachers on mental health. Online, MANI carries out sustained efforts to improve the Mental Health literacy levels of millions of people through their active social media pages - with a combined following of over 170,000 across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and with a reach, for example, of over 350 million in the past 6 months, all done using very innovative ways to get people involved in conversations, learn, and receive support as needed.