Fighting men’s mental health virtually

Doubling as a car dealer, Useni’s business collapsed under the weight of foreign exchange shortages, inflation, currency depreciation, Covid-19 aftershocks and energy crises. With demand for saloon cars dwindling, he turned to betting to plug the gap. What began as a pastime spiralled into addiction.

Losses mounted, debts ran into millions, and depression took hold. He attempted suicide five times. “Much as I was winning in some games, I was losing in most.

The losses ate into my business, leaving me stressed and suicidal,” he recalls. His salvation came through the intervention of a close friend, Elias Matope, who persuaded him to abandon his plans to shoot himself in April 2025. “We talked, he listened, and now he is back on his feet,” Matope says.

[paywall]

The statistics are stark. In 2022, 408 suicide deaths were recorded. In 2023, 479 of 527 victims were men whil;e the following year 522 of 597 suicides were male.

Between January and September last year, 390 of 482 victims were men. The toll is visible in tragic cases such as that of 31-year-old police officer Eric Chasweka, found hanging in his Dedza home last June, leaving farewell notes to his parents, supervisor and lover. Useni, however, refused to become another statistic of an officer taking their own life.

Drawing on his own ordeal, he founded Depression Survivors Malawi, a counselling initiative run largely through Facebook. “Last month alone, I assisted 30 people, mostly civil servants struggling with debt and women facing relationship issues,” he says. Together with two professional counsellors, he provides daily phone support and, where necessary, travels to meet those at risk.

“We wish we had a toll-free number since we now use our own meager resources to call and visit those in need,” he says. One of the thematic areas under the Shifting the Power (StP) programme by the Tilitonse Foundation with support from Comic Relief and the Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office is mental health. Under the Civil Society Strengthening Fund (CSSF) Tilitonse builds civil society organisations across the country. Nsanje-based Tiphedzane Community Support Organisation (Ticoso) is one of the 32 organisations benefiting from the capacity building and executive director Mike Dansa says mental health among men is crucial.

[/paywall]