LAST year, during the culmination of the Mental Health Week, a group of Dabawenyos and mental health advocates staged a social experiment that seeks to know how Dabawenyos are feeling for the day.
On October 15, 2018, the group set up a blank canvass, some paint brushes, and cans of paint in the San Pedro area for the Paint Your Feelings project.
“We wanted to create something artistic that will spark people to discuss mental health,” said Pia Duran, one of those who initiated the project and member of the Global Shapers Davao.
She added they wanted to know if Dabawenyos are willing to express their emotions and to know their level of awareness on mental health.
“Through the social experiment we want to create a safe space within the area for Dabawenyos to express their emotion,” she said, adding that many people nowadays have a tendency to bottle up their feelings.
Paint Your Feelings also served as an avenue to educate participants on mental health.
Duran pointed out there are still a number of misconceptions on mental health. For example, some still see depression as choice when it is actually a serious medical illness. There are also those who are not aware of how and where to get healthcare when they have a mental illness.
“We have to educate them or raise awareness [on mental health],” Duran said.
During the social experiment, they asked Dabawenyos to paint their feelings on the blank canvas with the paint that best represents their feelings.
“We learned that yellow is happy, red is love or anger, blue is sadness, and black is abandonment or emptiness,” Duran said.
There were also participants who combined colors to represent a combination of feelings they are having.
Duran said through the social experiment conversations on mental health also happened among participants and organizers.
She said there were nurses who commented that the social experiment was a form of social experiement. There were also participants who asked where they can mental health care.
Duran said they hope to stage the event again soon.
The project was a collaborative effort between Virtualahan, Global Shapers Davao Hub, Google Business Group-Davao, Swito Digital Stories Asia, Micromedia Digital Video Productions, and Mark Limbaga.