Wednesday, 18 November 2020 / Published in LIFESTYLE

Walk To Durban – 2 Guys 1 Mission

Walking in raising awareness for prevention of suicide

“The experience was highly rewarding.”

The views and people were amazing!

~ Ricardo & Jason

South Africa has about 23 people dying by suicide and 230 serious attempts a day, according to SADAG.

Now the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of lockdown may have worsened rates of depression and suicide.

“We need to understand that suicide does not happen out of the blue. There’s a series of events and most of the time suicide is deeply entrenched in depression. It becomes action as a result of one having being depressed. For the longest time, that person at the end of the day does not see hope,” says clinical psychologist Anele Siswana.

And then there was Ricardo Luis Serra Neiva and Jason Du Toit who started the initiative to walk for suicide prevention from Johannesburg to Durban, South Africa!

Their message to everyone out there is:

“It’s okay not to be okay! You are not alone!”

What they took from this experience:

“We were pushed on a physical, mental and emotional level and I think we both knew that was going to happen but we didn’t know to which extent!
We also felt it was the most rewarding thing to be pushed to that point because it felt like we were forced to make it or break it.”

They also said that they were able to take breaks so that realisation that they don’t always have to push it 1000% in life gave them the clarity that doesn’t matter what our circumstances are we need to be kind to ourselves and take a break when we need to.