In a humanitarian crisis, I do believe that MHPSS is a matter of life or death.
And we need to break the silence that still oppresses so many.
Neglecting this problem undermines the recovery of individuals, communities, and nations.
To come out of my experience, it was so painful because I thought I had no reason to live.
A constant feeling of that constant hunger and not knowing the next time I would eat.
I could see in his eyes that he was so sorry.
He couldn't do anything for that young man.
He had to go and help other people who had a chance to live.
If I would be in Syria now and say: I need psychosocial support...
people would look at me in a weird way and ask me a question this way: Are you crazy?
Yet in many cases these conditions are ignored or trivialised...
despite the fact that they risk leading to serious long-term consequences.
The issue of mental healthcare is still considered a taboo.
We help to connect the government with the community.
The main barrier for implementing or taking our efforts forward is lack of political will and funding.
The majority of people can recover very well after these disasters...
if we manage to provide adequate social support for them.
The people who see me as a traumatised refugee, I tell them: Look at me now.
I'm no longer just a victim. Instead, I'm a person with skills and expertise to support my community.
The fight for global equality for mental health has only just begun.
To be very frank, you need champions to bring this on the political agenda.
80 million children are living in war zones today that need psychosocial support right away.
To see people from many different organisations coming on board for this agenda...
A big thanks to the Netherlands for creating this moment.
Put mental health and psychosocial support first all the time, everywhere, for everyone.
This conference makes me more hopeful about the future of mental health.
I'm really pleased that finally people are actually talking the language that people need.
Educating people and creating awareness, I think, is very important.
That's what I'll try to do when I get back.
It should be common sense that we spend time and money on this topic.
As a priority, not something that's done later and not as a back-seat issue.
We can't forget anyone, anywhere across the globe.
We really need to invest in mental health.