My Mission:

My name is Taylor, and in April of this year, I suddenly lost my Dad. He died of a heart attack at the age of 50, but the real cause? A lifetime of stress and substance abuse. Anyone who knew my Dad would tell you that he had the biggest character and the motivation of a man who refused to give up, even when the world gave him every reason to. His resilience lives in everything I do.

But my Dad was also a broken man. He carried with him deep emotional trauma from childhood. Pain he never got the chance to heal from. He turned to unhealthy coping mechanisms due to a lack of support or resources. This, combined with the stress of trying to survive in a third-world country with a struggling economy and neither of his children by his side, made that his only option.

My story, sadly, is not uncommon in Zimbabwe. Mental health struggles are often forced to take a back seat to survival. But my mission is to change the way people view this. I want to strip away the stigma around mental health in the Global South and create a space where people can share the stories that are making them heavier than they need to be.

The Things We Carry - Zimbabwe is more than a platform, it is YOUR testimony. A growing archive of truth that, one day soon, I will take to NGO’s and aid organisations to advocate for stronger, culturally grounded mental health support across the Global South.

Because this is not just about mental health - in my Dad’s case, and so many others, it was survival.

I hope my story can help encourage others to tell theirs too