Last month, Umut Arts, a local creative company with a mission to educate, entertain and stimulate youth to believe in their capabilities by empowering them through performing arts, organised a mental health awareness week.

Sylvestre Nsengimana, the founder and CEO of the company, says that this initiative was inspired by his adversaries during the first Covid-19 lockdown in April 2020. "For two weeks, I felt hopeless, helpless and I made sure not to tell anyone about what I was going through until I learnt to rebuild myself. ‘Rebirth of the eagle’s phenomena’, a motivational blog, encouraged me to overcome that pain in this busy world,” he says.

Sylvestre Nsengimana. 

"The awareness week,” he adds, "was inspired by the five techniques (Meditation, Healing, Happiness, Fitness and Elegance) that I explored in the quest to embrace my mental health wellbeing. They worked for me and I am full of positive energy; hopeful and determined to meet myself in a better version of life.”

According to him, the initiative also aims to let people know that the mental health crisis is real. "I’m surprised every time I talk to a neighbour about a mental health case and his response is ‘they are just full (of food)’ or ‘it is a rich people’s illness’,” he says.

"Everyone in this world was born with a mind. It is important to take care of that mind as we take care of our businesses or properties. This is what mental health is; our mind determines how we think, how we talk to other people, and how we act in life. The crisis is likely to occur anytime we forget to take care of our minds.”

Launching the initiative

Nsengimana says that he shared with the Umut Arts team the five explored techniques in pictures. When they approved them, they made a photo shoot of each technique and the final pictures were shared in five days of the awareness week.

"I used each technique carefully and as many times as I could. They all have something in common; being here now and enjoying the present. I built hope and self-confidence every time I practiced each technique and I believed that they could help other people,” he says.

After sharing the techniques, he continues, Umut Arts was able to collaborate with different creative souls (poets, performers) who shared their mental health awareness messages by using social media platforms ‘Umut Arts Rwanda’ and ‘Lakhtrem’ supported by Lakhtrem Productions. According to him, the feedback has been positive since Umut Arts’ audience began sharing their experiences and together with the troupe, they are learning from each other.

How performing arts tackles mental health

Nsengimana shares that performing arts can be used to highlight the need for mental health awareness.

"Personally, I gain my strength from the stories of other people. We read stories from the books and watch movies, but performing arts have a strong way of letting the story tell itself live in front of the audience,” he says.

"Sometimes, people identify us with the role we played while performing by thinking that it was real. That is the power of performing arts; the message touches one’s subconscious mind.”

As a global language, he adds, performing arts has the power to create realities in the lives of the targeted audience and it is important to use it in raising mental health awareness.

Achievements

According to Nsengimana, Umut Arts organises Rwanda Theatre Fest yearly with the aim to promote cultural practice and explore different forms of theatre practices in Rwanda.

They have also been involved in different events and festivals such as Peace Celebration Event, Anda Arts festival, and Rwanda Old School Party.

They have also been selected among 23 Rwandan key actors in cultural and creative sector by Africalia Belgium where they have been equipped with practical skills to improve what they have been doing since 2018.

Nsengimana recognises that the performing arts sector in Rwanda has been struggling for growth because some artists lack motivation from investors and passionate entrepreneurs. However, he sees a better future as different organisations and the Ministry of Youth and Culture keep investing in capacity building.

The sector, he says, is lucky to nurture the audience, passionate artists and cultural activists who are doing their best to uplift it.

"My heart smiles every time I realise how young people are interested in doing spoken word poetry and theatre. Our troupe receives many requests from people who are interested in joining us. It is our motivation to work hard and provide more opportunities to many artists,” he says.

Challenges and plans

Nsengimana says that they have been struggling to improve visibility and productivity of their arts due to insufficient working capital to invest in quality production kits. He reveals that some stakeholders cannot dare accept the value of art and pay adequate fees even if they recognise the owners’ hustle and the importance of that work.

"Lack of grants and funds, insufficient spaces for artistic expression, lack of collaboration spirit among stakeholders, shortage of like-minded networks and hubs, artistic political structure, language skills, lack of effective communication in the sector, as well as the mind-set of our society towards artists are also challenges,” he says.

Speaking about their plans, Nsengimana reveals that they want to create more art professionally in order to reach the African stage. He says that they are also committed to organising talent detection events in different parts of the country with the objective of uplifting talented performers’ resilience and professionalism, in order to become the speakers of unheard voices.

For more information, you can reach out to them at info@umutarts.rw /umutarts7@gmail.com