On the 6th of September 2020 , MENNA Initiative organized its second session of its initiative “MENA, Media and Mental Health” from 4 to 5 in the afternoon.
More than 50 participants from different countries in the MENAregion took part in learning more about Storytelling and got inspired by the founder of Fenjan Initiative, Besan Wattad.
The session started by introducing the founders of the initiative, giving them the floor to thank the team, the participants, and the speaker for contributing in addressing issues that matter to MENA youth. Following that, Syrine Ouled Marzouk facilitated the session. She started by introducing herself as well as the speaker along important guidelines all attendees have to take into consideration.
Once the floor was given to the speaker, Besan Wattad welcomed the participants and started to explain what is Storytelling and its relation to Mental Health. She mentioned different ways to share a story. She shared her personal story and her journey from depression to personal fulfillment by raising multiple questions and reflecting on the effects of sharing her story on Facebook.
As short break before moving to the next part, the facilitator Syrine Ouled Marzouk shared some participants’ comments and questions, giving them the space to speak up.
Besan Wattad followed up on some comments by giving tips on how to prepare ready answers and deal with negative comments without feeling affected by them on the mental level.
She also highlighted the importance of every story as worth sharing and unique, pointing out its positive effects.
Besan mentioned how passion to what one wants to share is the secret to succeed and inspire people and how it is fine to exaggerate in telling stories with true and meaningful purposes.
In the meanwhile, Sinda as one of the MENNA Initiative founders added her thoughts regarding nowadays’ politicians using story telling in getting to their personal purposes.
For the remaining 20 minutes, the founder Sinda along with Besan Wattad suggested an interesting workshop for participants to share their unique stories.
The workshop seemed like a comfortable space where participants were separated in breakout rooms to think about a story to tell in front of the rest of the participants.
Mentored by the MENNA team, the 15 minutes went quickly as everyone shared breathtaking thoughts.
Afterward, the session continued for extra 35 minutes as everyone started to tell their stories in front of the 46 attendees. Some shared their breathtaking experiences along with their dearest people and pets. Some shared their personal pictures and the journeys they had in the midst of the pandemic. Others shared emotional episodes from their real life experiences.
Ultimately, the session ended at 5h35 PM with a final word of appreciation and support by the storyteller Besan Wattad and the facilitator Syrine Ouled Marzouk.
EL Rhidoui Rachida
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