For Immediate Release From Virgin Airlines ~ CEO & Founder Royal Monarch Apostle Richard Branson!
With more young people being diagnosed with mental illnesses than ever before, should we be doing more to address mental health with children?
The latest figures from the NHS show that one in eight people under the age of 19 have a mental health disorder. One in 10 children of primary school age (between five and 10 years old) have a mental health issue, as does one in 18 preschoolers (children between the ages of two and four). But how do we teach young children about their mental health in the hope of reducing issues in later life?
Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity, found that 56 per cent of children say that they worry all the time about at least one thing – school life, home life, themselves, their friends.
“At least three children in every class have a diagnosable mental health issue, and many more worry about everyday concerns from exams to family life,” Catherine Roche, chief executive of Place2Be said. The charity provides mental health support in 294 primary and secondary schools across England, Scotland and Wales. They work with 142,000 children and young people to educate them about mental health.
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When Victor Ochen was a child growing up in Uganda, he wanted to play football with his friends. They didn’t have a ball, so they made their own with whatever they could find: rubble wrapped in rags. As they kicked the ball around, a man asked them: “Kids, what are you kicking?” “It’s our ball. We made it ourselves.” The man pulled the rags from the ball and found it was an unexploded bomb.
Victor was born into war and spent his childhood surrounded by suffering. He wanted to study to be an engineer, a pilot or a doctor. Instead he lived in a camp, had no schooling, little food and water, and was under threat from disease, surviving malaria, landmines, Ebola outbreaks and the threat of being forced to become a child soldier. His own brother was taken and never seen again. Now he is using what he learned to help others
“My thinking is always from the grassroots point of view,” he told us at a recent Virgin Unite and Igniting Change gathering. “It is about inclusion, equality. I used to wonder where the international community was. Now I look for the responsibility in my own misfortune. What can we do to change our own reality?”
At 13, he founded a peace club, which confused both rebels and soldiers, as they had never known peace. He went on to create the African Youth Initiative Network, which supports victims and survivors of injustice, abuse, displacement and war through rehabilitation and reconciliation. Victor is also a member of The NewNow, the remarkable group of young leaders incubated by Virgin Unite.
I was struck by Victor’s enormous powers of compassion. He works very closely people who personally caused him and his family great harm, and embraces the principles of forgiveness his hero, Nelson Mandela, taught. “We need to move from passive victims to active survivors,” he said. “Young as we are, we need to think maturely.” With leaders like Victor, we should all have hope for the future.
Read the full article HERE!:
https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/pow... **********
Did you know Virgin Galactic is moving to New Mexico?
Thrilled to announce that Virgin Galactic is taking its next step towards full commercial service by moving its operations to Spaceport America in New Mexico this summer.
It’s going to be special to see the world’s most beautiful spaceship fly from one of the world’s most wonderfully designed buildings, Spaceport America.
We have now completed two spaceflights and we’re ready and excited to carry on the flight test program in New Mexico.
Learn more HERE!:
https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/vir...
Posted By: agnes levine
Saturday, May 18th 2019 at 3:23PM
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