ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2021
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. In 2021, over 25,000 young leaders on 2,000+ campuses across 153 nations applied to join the Class of 2021. 136 campuses worldwide (just 6%) were selected to host the 2,000+ Millennium Fellows. The Class of 2021 is bold, innovative, and inclusive.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT NEWTON TENDAI LUPWAYI, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2021.
University of Malawi College of Medicine | Blantyre, Malawi | Advancing SDG 3 & UNAI 1
" Being in an environment of like-thinkers with whom I can bounce ideas off and learn from is particularly inspiring for me. With the skills I am to aquire from being a Millennium Fellow, I will be able to reach eben more people and also improve the methods of my approach. I look forward to becoming a better leaderand and improving my vision as I learn to align it with that of the UN while at the same time furthering my career in public health. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Unboxed Mental Health Awareness
Mental health is crucial among young people, although it is commonly neglected. This negligence calls for an intervention of which we have come up with this project. It is meant to address mental health illiteracy and provide mental health support to university students in Malawi. Although face-to-face support groups have been shown to have a great impact in providing mental health support, they may not be convenient or suitable for a couple of people as most mental health problems are attached to stigma and privacy. Therefore, we plan to build an application that will serve as a support group. It will have anonymous chat groups that can help and educate students about mental health. On top of that, therewill be a hotline to a psychiatrist in case anyone would need expert help. For further awareness, a Facebook page will be created where different topics on mental health will be posted; where possible, creativity will be included to make the content more appealing and easy to engage with. The other part of this project is to help students advance in their education and careers. In interacting with them, we would like to challenge them to be more and aspire to have a global impact. This will be done by presenting school/scholarship/internship/fellowship opportunities to them; helping them to apply for such by reviewing their essays and providing interview tips and so on. With this, the project is addressing SDG 3 and 4.
About the Millennium Fellow
Newton Tendai Lupwayi, born and raised in Malawi. Newton is self driven, hard weorking and a very quick learner. He is a second year medical student (MBBS) at the University of Malawi - College of medicine. Moved by unrecognised problem of poor mental health in African societies and the world at large, he has since late primary school days promoted awareness for this issue. He has successfully organised several support groups incoorporating individuals from different walks of life having in common the desire to improve their mental health or seek help for friends and/or family.
