Mending broken hearts

Mercy Kasito, 25, had a hard time accepting the death of a friend who succumbed to cancer last year.

She suffered pain, denial and frustrations to the point of giving up on life.

“Her death robbed me of the hope and belief of life after such a loss in particular pursuing my dreams. So, after some counselling, I accepted the death.

Kasito’s life took another turn after attending a Youth Global Leadership Summit in Blantyre Baptist recently. earlier this year.

She decided to do something about those reeling from pain like she did.

“There are so many people hurting, going through worse than what I went through. They die inside and some decide to commit suicide because they feel alienated; hence, the formation of Mended Hearts.

“Having been counselled through my loss, I incorporated counsellors, too,” she said.

Mended Hearts aims at raising an empowered, motivated, encouraged and inspired generation that withstands life despite what they go through.

It also wants to build a caring community that gets concerned and expresses love to all that are going through a hard time.

Kasito observes that stress and denial are some of the biggest challenges among the youth.

“Many young people are sensitive and worry too much. We encourage people to be themselves. We all think differently, have different personalities and our own ways of dealing with challenges. That’s what makes us unique,” she points out.

She urges churches, schools and workplaces to take stress and suicide seriously.

Kasito works as a reservations agent at Protea Ryalls Hotel and has a diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management.