PAX - Program of Academic Exchange is a program of PAX Laurasian Exchange and is designated by the U.S. Department of State as a J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program sponsor.

FLEX/YES students team up with American teens for mental health

According to the World Health Organization, one in four people in the world will be affected by mental disorders at some point in their lives. Those who suffer from mental health rarely talk about it openly, because they are scared of being judged and looked down upon. There are a lot of stigmas that surround in society, whereby people see those who have mental disorders in negative ways. That’s why we want to spread awareness about mental health. By spreading awareness, we will be helping those people who suffer, so they know how to deal with it and can talk about how they feel.

We are a team from several countries who want to advocate for mental health. A mix of PAX FLEX and YES Virtual Program scholarship exchange students and International Baccalaureate Program students at Plymouth High School in Canton, Michigan, our peer-to-peer project group includes:

• Aryan (USA)
• Chloe (USA)
• Mandira (USA)
• Mukhlisa (FLEX, Kyrgyzstan)
• Pikria (FLEX, Georgia)
• Polina (FLEX, Estonia)
• Vova (FLEX, Ukraine)

We made an Instagram account (@_globalpositivity) that shares a bunch of content about mental health. We shared types of mental illnesses, quotes, tips and tricks, recommended movies and books, and much more.

For the final meeting in our peer-to-peer project, we made a slideshow about mental health and all those things that we’d developed for this project. Also, we made a video about what mental health is and how to cope with it.

Our goal is to show people that we should care about our mental health and also help other people, who are suffering from mental issues. Let’s do it together!

—Didan (YES, Indonesia), Virtual Program