A Personal Story
My mother is a teacher. She is also blind. And for a period of time, she went through different stages of depression brought on by work related stressors and the mounting pressure of running a family. What started as distress eventually became something more serious: temporary impairment so severe that she could no longer teach.
Like many Kenyan families, we did not immediately understand what was happening. We are people of faith, and our first instinct was to seek spiritual help. That search, well intentioned as it was, only made things worse. It added to my mother's trauma rather than relieving it.
The system had its own barriers. In Kenya, only a medical clinic doctor can write a sick note. Psychiatrists and therapists sit behind that gate. My mother could not get permission to seek advanced care, because the gatekeepers of that permission only recognised physical illness.
That experience opened my eyes to the many people living with diagnosed conditions: OCD, PTSD, ADHD, anorexia, and others that are acquired or worsened at the workplace. Without support, without access, without anyone at their organisation knowing what to look for, they risk ending up in situations as serious as my mother's.
We do not want people to quit. We want employers to retain their talent, protect their productivity, and improve their profitability. And we believe this is possible without it coming at the expense of the people doing the work.
Teddy Waithaka, Founder
