By Daniel Nii Okine for Sankofaonline
At a time when the mental health crisis among Ghanaian youth is no longer creeping but charging forward, Zion College has refused to sit idle. The Zion College, Anloga Old Students Association, NAFRICANS, has thrown down a gauntlet, partnering with the BESSTEL Foundation to confront a problem too many institutions tiptoe around. On October 29th, 2026 at exactly 10:00 AM, the campus will host a Mental Health Awareness Workshop that is not coming to entertain, it is coming to disrupt complacency.
The program, boldly titled The Power of Choice, carries a message that demands attention, Live healthy, stay drug free, healthy mind in a healthy body.
This is not a polite suggestion. It is a direct challenge to a generation drowning in academic pressure, social anxiety, and the seductive pull of harmful substances. The flyer advertising the event underscores the seriousness of this collaboration. Zion College is not offering another motivational talk, it is staging an intervention.
A Roster of Global Experts
The organisers have assembled a panel that makes one thing clear, Zion College is done with half measures. These are not casual speakers. They are seasoned professionals whose expertise spans continents. They are:
- Ms. Stella Bryant: Mental Health Nursing Manager and C E O of the BESSTEL Foundation, arrives with clinical authority and leadership that demands respect.
- Mr. Nash Momori :Expert Mental Health Consultant, is prepared to deliver strategies that cut through excuses and force students to confront reality.
- Peter Hasler: Former Director of Nursing in the United Kingdom, brings international experience that exposes just how far behind many local institutions have fallen.
- Ms. Hilda Amewu: Community Support Manager for Mental Health in the United Kingdom, adds a community care perspective that insists mental health is not an individual battle but a collective responsibility.
A Comprehensive, Compassionate Curriculum
The workshop does not tiptoe around sensitive topics. It tackles them head-on. The presentations are structured to dismantle stigma, confront denial, and equip students with tools they should have received long ago. These are:
- Mental Wellbeing: Pushing students to build confidence, adopt a disciplined mindset, and take responsibility for their own emotional hygiene.
- Stress Management: Exposing the unhealthy habits students hide behind and replacing them with strategies that actually work.
- Support and Resilience: Teaching students to recognise distress, seek help without shame, and contribute to a school culture that refuses to normalise suffering.
- Live Healthy, Stay Drug Free: Confronting the drug culture creeping into youth spaces and empowering students to reject it with clarity and conviction.
A Community United for Its Youth
This workshop is more than an event. It is a statement. When alumni return not to reminisce but to intervene, they send a message that Zion College refuses to abandon its future leaders to silence and struggle. NAFRICANS and the BESSTEL Foundation have stepped into a void many institutions pretend does not exist.
For Zion College students, neighboring schools, and the wider Anloga community, October 29th will not be a break from class. It will be a reckoning, an awakening, and an opportunity to reclaim control over their mental and emotional lives.
Sankofaonline highlights this initiative as a reminder to the diaspora and the broader community that a society that neglects the mental health of its youth is a society preparing its own downfall.
