Vivian Anyango Aola’s commitment to mental health advocacy stems from her personal experiences growing up in Nairobi, where she witnessed people struggling with emotional distress without access to support or solutions. Today, she works at the St. Daniel Comboni mission, creating safe spaces for people living with mental health conditions and psychosocial, intellectual, and cognitive disabilities. Through dialogue and shared learning, she challenges stigma and discrimination, which remain significant barriers to inclusion and equal treatment.
To strengthen her advocacy, Vivian enrolled in the WHO QualityRights in Mental Health online course, available on the WHO Academy platform. The six-module program equips learners with knowledge to promote rights-based, person-centered approaches in mental health. For Vivian, the course provided a new perspective, showing her how to support people in ways that respect autonomy and promote recovery rather than focusing solely on treatment.
She emphasizes the importance of language and culture in transforming mental health systems. With the course now available in 17 languages and over 141,000 global enrollments, accessibility has become a key driver of change. Vivian notes that when resources are available in local languages, they build trust, reduce misunderstanding, and encourage people to seek help, while empowering health workers to deliver culturally relevant care.
Global evaluations of the course show significant improvements in attitudes toward people with mental health conditions, with shifts of nearly 30% in low- and middle-income countries. Vivian believes this demonstrates the potential for systemic change: when people understand rights, dignity, and recovery, mental health systems can evolve into more inclusive, recovery-oriented models.
