As we just commemorated Mental Health Awareness Month, we have the opportunity to recommit ourselves to prioritizing our mental health, checking in on the mental health of our loved ones, and playing an active role in reducing the stigma behind mental health in our communities, including in our Jamat.
The 411 on Mental Health
While each individual’s mental health is impacted in positive and negative ways on a daily basis, mental health challenges are on the rise, particularly among children and teenagers. According to the World Health Organization, one in seven (14%) youth between 10-19 years of age experience one or more mental health conditions that are often left unrecognized and untreated.
Youth become especially vulnerable to mental health challenges due to physiological changes during adolescence, pressure to conform with peers, and exposure to harmful social media content. However, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology discovered that positive mental health literacy, or knowledge about overall mental health and wellness, was “significantly and positively associated with mental well-being” among adolescents.
The Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Promoting Mental Wellness Within our Youth
Girl Scouts of the USA offers a Gold Award, which is considered the highest honor that Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors can receive by implementing a project that promises sustainable solutions to a pressing community issue. This year ,within the Dallas community, three young Ismaili Girl Scouts walked away with this prestigious award for their stellar focus on youth mental health awareness and stigma reduction throughout Dallas.
The three Gold Award recipients from our Jamat demonstrate that youth can serve as positive change agents, inspiring a more equitable and compassionate world for all.
“Butterflies in my Stomach” by Zaha Lakhani
Zaha was a senior at Uplift North Hills Preparatory, whose Gold Award Project culminated in a children’s book publication titled “Butterflies in my Stomach,” a story about a little girl who is anxious about her first day of school. Zaha’s book was specifically targeted to elementary aged children between five and ten years old since she felt that young kids are often not included in the conversation about mental health due to an underlying perception that children may not be able to grasp this concept. In fact, Zaha experienced this gap in understanding mental health through her own experiences growing up.
Image 1
“Looking back on my childhood, I realized that I was really only introduced to the concept of mental health at maybe 10-11 years old, and I realized looking back as a kid that I had a lot of anxiety, and I had absolutely no idea that that was mental health. I didn't know what mental health was at all.”
With an understanding that children do face mental health struggles like teenagers and adults, Zaha recognized that children are not given the proper tools to comprehend their mental health status. Therefore, mitigating this barrier became the focus of her Gold Award.
“Doing it as a fictional story allowed me to introduce [mental health] in a way that was familiar to [children] because I know in elementary education, fiction books are the most common way of introducing more complex topics in a simple way. So through a little story, I was able to introduce it in a way that was more relatable to the kids.”
In her book, Zaha illustrated a story about a little girl who was experiencing general anxiety and nervousness surrounding her first day of school – an event that most children can relate to. To make the concept of general anxiety more tangible, Zaha made sure to describe its physical manifestations, such as a stomach ache (hence the title “Butterflies in my Stomach”).
Once the character recognizes she is feeling nervous, she goes to her parents for help. This action step reinforces the message of seeking help from a trusted individual when feeling uneasy or anxious. The book also provides some practical exercises that children can perform when feeling anxious, such as bubble breathing, in which one imagines having a bubble wand and breathing in and out slowly as if one were blowing bubbles. In this way, children can understand that anxiety is not only normal but can also be counteracted with effective coping exercises.
When asked about the impact of her Gold Award Project, Zaha remarked that she wanted to break down the stigma of mental health, as well as the barrier between children and mental health. She also emphasized the necessity to shift the perspective that mental health does not affect some other group. “At the end of the day,” says Zaha, “all of us to an extent have some sort of mental health struggles or challenges on a day-to-day basis. My biggest piece of advice would be that no idea is ever too small and no initiative is ever too small. So if you want to make a certain impact in your community – say it's mental health – even just having a conversation with someone in the community is an impact, and that's equally as important as doing some big project.”
“Mental Health Matters” by Zania Karim
Zania was a sophomore at Carroll ISD, whose Gold Award project titled “Mental Health Matters” enabled the assembly and distribution of 1,600 stress-relieving objects to four schools in her district. Through this process, Zania also educated different student organizations in Southlake Texas about the importance of mental health. These included Hope Squad (a suicide prevention advocacy organization at her school), Key Club (a community service organization at her school), and two Girl Scout troops: one Junior troop and one Brownie troop. By reaching out to organizations with different age brackets, Zania was able to effectively tailor her project to her intended audience of middle and high school students.
Zania Karim_Image 5-2:
Zania states that the purpose of her project was “to make students more comfortable in approaching and sharing their feelings with professionals at their school who are there to help.” Having the courage to ask for help when feeling lost, uncertain, or stressed is not an easy task. However, Zania exhibited this strength when she was in middle school and was profoundly impacted by the outcome.
“In seventh grade, I had an experience that I never thought [I] would, and I did not know how to approach that situation. This was also during COVID times, so I didn't want to bother my parents with all the stresses that they were undergoing as well. I confided in my guidance counselor at Carroll ISD. And talking to someone outside of my family that could provide me with a different perspective was a relief for me. The compassion she showed me gave me the strength I needed to persevere through that situation. That was the point where I was like ‘I am determined to give back to my community, like I need to do something to give back in the way that she helped me.’”
Not only did Zania’s personal encounter inspire her to focus on mental health for her Gold Award project, but she knew she wanted to tailor her project toward the youth out of her love for children in general. Zania recalls preferring to spend her time with her younger cousins at family gatherings, finding “the littles” to be “so interesting and cute.” Regarding the assembly and distribution of fidget toys, Zania discovered in her research that fidgets are not only appealing to kids and help them open up to the concept of mental health, but they also have various scientific benefits such as stress relief and productivity enhancement.
When Zania administered surveys to the counselors after six weeks at the four schools in her district where the stress-relieving objects were distributed, she found that 66.7% of counselors reported the students using the stress-relieving objects. Hence, the Hope Squad at each of these schools will be sustaining Zania’s project by replenishing 100% of the objects in the guidance counselors’ offices.
When asked about the impact of her Gold Award Project, Zania expressed her hope that the proportion of middle and high school students she was able to reach will learn to value their mental health over the course of their lifetime and share that knowledge to benefit others as well.
Zania also came to a powerful realization. “Not all mental health conditions have a label,” she says. “Stress -- that's mental health. Even if somebody thinks that they have anxiety, for example, they don't need to be diagnosed to recognize they need help.” Hence, Zania’s perspective beautifully coincides with Zaha’s story about the importance of advocating for overall mental well-being, which does not exclude asking for help when facing serious mental health challenges.
“Take it one step at a time,” says Zania. “Breathe. Sometimes, that's really all you need. I also like writing everything down – my ideas, my to-do list, my goals – because that personally helps me to organize my thoughts. Talking out loud really helps, too.”
“Mindfulnest” by Aiza Ukani
Aiza was a sophomore at Jasper High School whose Gold Award project resulted in the creation of a club at her high school,titled “Mindfulnest.” Through this club, Aiza focused on how mindfulness, or being present in the moment, can assist one to build resilience and emerge from challenges with enhanced strength.
Aiza image 3-2
Aiza figured that starting a club centered around the theme of resilience through mindfulness was ideal, given that high school students face several stressors, from academic pressures to navigating college applications, which can potentially compromise students’ mental health.
Aiza facilitated eight sessions in total, each focused on different activities to instill mindfulness, including two informational sessions with presentations delivered by a mental health professional, yoga, dance, gratitude journaling, breathing and stretching, physical training, and art. Furthermore, Aiza created a WhatsApp group to post weekly mindfulness tips so that students remain motivated to continue incorporating these exercises into their lives.
Aiza was inspired to dedicate her Gold Award Project to a mental health cause when she learned about depression, anxiety, stress, and other mental health challenges in her health class freshman year during Suicide Prevention Month. She was struck by how common these issues are among youth her age at school, at Jamatkhana, and at Ismali camps like Mosaic.
Aiza believes the impact of her work has been phenomenal. Through the pre and post surveys assessing club members’ knowledge about mindfulness, she saw that while people put ones or twos for the question of how much they knew about mindfulness in the pre-survey, they put fours and fives for the same question in the post survey. Furthermore, Aiza saw that the individuals in the Whatsapp group are implementing the mindfulness exercises she suggested and sending photos of performing them with their families.
To ensure Mindfulnest continues to function after Aiza graduates, she has picked a student who will take over the club’s responsibilities and has also created a curriculum for her school that can be referenced in the planning and facilitation of future mental health sessions.
“I just hope that my legacy for this club and this project is that it keeps on continuing because mental health is never going to stop; it's actually getting bigger and bigger as we talk about it,” says Aiza. “So I just want students not to get so stressed and anxious and actually practice these [exercises] so that they can calm themselves down.”
To see the principle “Practice before you preach” in action, Aiza serves as a perfect example.
“I actually practice these mindfulness tips, and I also make my family practice [them], so that they keep me in check. And I know that if I ever do get stressed out with school – which I know I do, I think everyone does – I just know that I can go back to these tips and tricks, do these practices, and help myself and my friends and family out.”
Mental Health Does not Stop in May
Through these three incredible Girl Scout Gold Award projects, Zaha Lakhani, Zania Karim, and Aiza Ukani have acquired tremendous skills that will benefit them in college and beyond. From communication and leadership capabilities to logistics and time management, the competencies of these young talented Ismailis point towards a bright and equitable future for our Jamat. Moreover, each of us has a vital responsibility to reduce the butterflies in our stomach and cultivate a culture of resilience by fully living each moment so that mental health continues to matter every day of our lives.
Mental health of adolescents click here
Mental Health Education for Youth: Focus on Mental Wellness click here
