Valor Mental Health Foundation is a youth-driven Non-Governmental Organization based in Francistown. It aims to educate the public on mental health and promote practices that propagate good mental health and eliminate stigma toward people living with mental health conditions. Valor Mental Health was founded on 30th May 2017 by Charlotte Siya-Ruwona and Dr. Chris Ruwona. Both Charlotte and Chris live with mental illnesses which inspired them to form this organization.
Meet Our Founders
Charlotte Siya-Ruwona
Founder
Dr Chris Ruwona
Founder
Creation of VMHF
Charlotte and Chris met through a mutual friend a few weeks after Chris’ return from the Czech Republic. What was going to be a casual meeting between acquaintances turned into a meeting of similar minds. Charlotte had been keeping on creating an organization to tackle the stigma that she has experienced while Dr. Chris was driven to share his experiences with mental health and use it to help others, especially young people deal with their mental health and move forward in the future. They founded VMHF with the aim to help prevent anyone from experiencing the same things they did without support. Charlotte and Chris have since worked tirelessly to promote mental health. On April 202 1, the two sealed their partnership in marriage, hence the identical surnames.
Our Vision
A community that promotes mental health through compassion, care, and empathy for each other through collaborative efforts rooted in limiting the effects of mental health conditions on everyone.
Our Objectives
- To ensure the availability and accessibility of basic mental healthcare for all in the foreseeable future.
- To promote community participation in the mental health service development
- To encourage the application of mental health knowledge in general health care and in the community.
- To bring change and reduce stigma surrounding mental health conditions.
- To create a platform where everyone is free to come out and respecting the one who don’t confidently.
Our Mission
To promote mental health in all sectors of the community with actions aimed at limiting causes of mental ill-health, treating precursors to mental health conditions and rehabilitating existing ones.