Mental Health Forum

Wednesday, 15th March 2023 at 11:20am

Year 10 students Pheobe Brown, Emelia Queenin, Bella Wood, Krisha Karippail (pictured above) participated in a Buddies Without Borders forum, with the aim of creating a website to promote happiness for teenagers - proposing a concept to solve NZ’s mental health crisis.

The girls believe the New Zealand mental health system is failing to improve teens’ mental health as there are no preventative measures being taken. Their goal is to encourage everyone to always prioritize their mental health, which will help to prevent mental illness. After brainstorming ideas and coming up with helpful and relevant information, their end product is an eye-catching and user-friendly site that helps teens take care of mental health through mindfulness, reaching out, and knowing the signs. They also produced a report essay and presentation on their solution to this issue. After much hard work and commitment, the team placed top 5 in this worldwide competition!

"We shouldn't be waiting until something goes wrong. This is our solution, Fences. This website was made to help teens with their mental health through mindfulness, reaching out, and knowing the signs, and to prevent the issue from occurring in the first place."

Being part of the BWB (Buddies Without Borders) group is for students aged 14-18 worldwide, who regularly 'get together' via Global Chats (online meetings) to debate different topical issues with students worldwide. Every few months BWB students carry out a local action project to inspire positive change within their community. These projects link to the United Nations' sustainable development goals. Projects usually focus on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as Innovation, Climate Change, Ending Poverty, and Public Health.

Interested to know more? Email Sylvie Howell or Katrina Piezzo