A special interview with Ambassador Nabila Makram, “Founder and President of Fahim Psychological Support”

A special interview with Ambassador Nabila Makram"Founder and President of Fahim Psychological Support"

Egypt is currently witnessing a green process with regard to rebuilding concepts related toMental illness, based on the fact that mental health is an important tool for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Therefore, we will open with you the closed files of mental illness in our dialogue with Ambassador Nabila Makram, “founder and chair of the Board of Trustees of the Fahim Foundation for Psychological Support,” which works with dedication for healthy souls and sustainable health.. So to the lines of the dialogue.

Her Excellency Ambassador Nabila Makram has had a green career path, which has helped support the shift towards developmental concepts in Egyptian society. What are the most important lines of this development process?

Psychological support is one of the issues that is not covered. Rather, it was a different kind of sustainability. It was a negative sustainability, where people say: We want to remain as we are, and not reveal our psychological pain.

Hence, the goal of the “Fahim Psychological Support” Foundation was to change the concept of sustainability in the field of mental illness, and to combat the stigma that has attached to this field, to the point that we have lost many lives. Therefore, we at the Foundation seek to clarify the concept of mental illness through awareness-raising methods, and we have implemented 100 activities within a year. In order to spread our message.

We are trying to throw a stone into still water; So that people reveal what is inside them; Therefore, we decided that the “Fahim Psychological Support” Foundation would be a sustainable reality on the ground, and not just theories. Let us then achieve true sustainability.

How does Ambassador Nabila Makram see the importance of partnerships to achieve sustainable development?

There is no doubt that partnerships are important, and our role - as a civil society organization - is to partner with the state, and this is the essence of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); Therefore, we had many cooperation protocols with state institutions.

These partnerships are an integrated image of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). When the state works with civil society organizations for a health and development goal, this enhances production and the economy.

Fahim Foundation’s slogan “Listen - Understand - Speak”; What is the secret and goal behind this arrangement?

Our motto last year was “Understand - Listen - Speak.” Understanding first, then listening, and then speaking. But after a year we discovered that what is most important is listening. A person may need to express what is in himself and others do not listen to him, or they listen to him but criticize him, or they underestimate his inner pain.

Our message to society is: Listen without criticism, listen without judgment, listen in all circumstances; Because whenever we hear the other, we understand the inside and the truth of things, and after that comes talking, which helps us overcome the psychological ordeal. This slogan of ours delivers an awareness message, and at the same time works to spread a feeling of reassurance in the souls of people.

What are the most important cooperation protocols organized by the institution?

All protocols are important, but the most important is the counseling protocol. We are a religious people, and the sheikh and the priest have a special place in our hearts, Muslims and Christians. If the sheikh and priest have a degree of awareness and awareness - I do not say: a degree of depth - of mental health issues, we will save many lives. Because faith in God gives us psychological cohesion!

We must realize that falling ill or psychological exhaustion is normal, and here comes the role of the sheikh and priest who encourage us to go to the psychiatrist. Therefore, I believe that the most important protocol is the protocol of the Church and Al-Azhar, especially since His Eminence the Grand Imam and His Holiness the Pope enjoy a great deal of enlightened thought.

How can a person exposed to psychological pain be integrated into society?

Treating this problem takes years. Because we first need to make society accept the mentally ill, and the integration step will be our main concern in the next stage. Therefore, we want to call on businessmen at a later stage to establish national projects such as farms, as a step towards reintegrating these people into society.

Such ideas will undoubtedly help integrate mentally ill people into society on the one hand, and on the other hand it will be a step towards strengthening the national economy, especially since many of those who feel psychological exhaustion are highly intelligent and can carry out various tasks brilliantly.

Will this gradual integration be without disclosing their medical history, as we saw in the Foundation’s celebration of the one-year anniversary of its founding?

What we did at the celebration we wanted to erase the myth that a mentally ill person is crazy, to reassure everyone who sits next to these patients, and to confirm that they are not dangerous. What I mean by integrating them into national projects is for them to be mixed with people who are similar to them. So that they realize that they are not alone in this matter, and after that we can integrate them into society more broadly.

Among the many services provided by the “Fahim Foundation” is the community development service. What are the most prominent activities of this service?

Our services are limited to the field of awareness, as well as to the field of growth and development, such as our participation in developing the Abbasiya Hospital, whose reality has been distorted by cinema. There, in cooperation with some businessmen, we were able to develop six wards, in addition to renovating the hospital’s bathroom infrastructure. We also implemented similar efforts in Khanka, Maamoura and Demerdash.

Your Excellency Ambassador Nabila Makram, do you not agree with us on the intensity of the media’s influence in the field of psychiatry?

I can say: Drama and cinematic works were a fundamental reason for the spread of the culture that mental illness is a disgrace. Generations emerged that believe that the mentally ill patient is crazy, and so is the doctor, to the point that we treat medications for mental illness like drugs! But - in truth - some dramatic works have begun to redirect this path, and somewhat change the accumulated concepts, by dealing with mental illness objectively, away from sarcasm and humor.

In conclusion,The Protectors of the Earth thanks Ambassador Nabila Makram for this dialogue, which opened many horizons for mental illness in the Egyptian reality. An attempt to confirm that mental illness is not a stigma.