Chronicle Editor
Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]
SIPHO Mazibuko (NaZoe), the founder of Mental Voices, has donated 10 cakes to patients at Ingutsheni St Mary’s Ward, as a way of giving back to the community that helped her recover from bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder is a mental condition that causes mood swings from depression to mania.
The cakes were donated by Jasmine Lotze cakes, Cakeville Zimbabwe and Blessed Hands Cakes, who have been supporting Mental Voices with cakes for their events. Mazibuko is a mental health activist who was once admitted at Ingutsheni, the country’s largest psychiatric hospital.
Mazibuko said she decided to bring cakes to Ingutsheni because she knew that some of the patients there were abandoned by their relatives and had no visitors during holidays. She said she wanted to cheer them up and show them some love and understanding.
“As a former patient here at Ingutsheni Hospital, I realised that patients need a bit of cheer during Christmas because when relatives bring us here there is no one who comes back to say ‘Merry Christmas or happy birthday.’ So I know how it feels, as someone who has been at St Mary’s, I found it to be a good home, a place where there is an opportunity to heal and a place where they gave me love and understanding,” she said.
“I will be forever grateful for what Ingutsheni did for me, that’s why I came back to give back to the community as they have managed to make me well. Being ill is not easy, worse for a well-known person like me.”
She also revealed that she has plans to do mental illness awareness campaigns through her Mental Voices Organisation, especially in rural areas where she said people need to understand and treat mental health patients as they treat people with chronic diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure.
She urged people who have relatives with mental disorders to take them to the hospital, saying that she tried all sorts of treatments, including witchdoctors, but they failed until she got assistance from Ingutsheni.
The matron at Ingutsheni, Thokozile Ngwenya, thanked Mazibuko for her donation and said she always remembered where she got her healing.
“On behalf of the management, I want to say thank you to Mazibuko, she always remembers us, the patients are going to enjoy this Christmas. Some of our patients do not have relatives or friends to bring them gifts during these festive holidays and this will help to cheer them up,” she said.
Dr Wellington Ranga, the clinical director at Ingutsheni, said the institution was very grateful for Mazibuko’s gesture. He said Mazibuko had passed through the system and had seen the loneliness experienced by patients.
“We are happy that Sipho is encouraging people out there to come and open up about the situation and her coming back shows that the institution is offering help to people, so we are saying come let’s work together and find a way to deal with issues that affect our mental health,” he said.
Elliot Shava, Mazibuko’s father, said his maximum support during her illness helped her to regain her normalcy. He added that it was worrying for families to find out their relative was ill, especially with mental health issues, where he said they failed to understand the situation, how and why their daughter got sick. —@SikhulekelaniM1
Online Reporter