Maria Mumu becomes country's first mental health advocate to receive Diana Award

Maria Mumu, 20, the founder and president of Moshal Mental Health, has been recognised with the highest accolade a young person can achieve for social action or humanitarian efforts – The Diana Award.

Maria is not only the first mental health advocate from Bangladesh to win the Diana Award, but her organisation, Moshal, is the youngest mental health organisation to receive international acknowledgement, being recognised only a year after its inauguration, reads a press release.

Moshal is the direct outcome of Maria's difficult personal events. After the tragic loss of her friend, as well as her own personal battle with depression and anxiety, Maria became a dedicated mental health advocate to ensure no one else has to go through the same struggles.

She founded Moshal with the aim of destigmatising mental health, and making mental health-care accessible, affordable and effective for everyone, both nationally and internationally.

Today, Moshal is the fastest-growing mental health organisation in the country, owing to their exemplary expert panel and one-of-a-kind Client Relations Team. They are the first to launch a psychological first-aid hotline, catering to hundreds of people.

Having recently started a nationwide dialogue on mental health, Moshal is now moving towards providing free mental health-care to orphans.

With never before seen events, such as 'Youth for the World', which included participation by seven countries, and campaigns such as 'Let's Talk Mental Health', Moshal is setting the standards for the country's mental health sector.

With Maria's fearless resilience, Moshal moves forward to create an all-inclusive environment and completely change the way society views mental illnesses, subsequently breaking all stigmas associated with them.