With her social initiative, Challenge To Change, Dina Bseisu tells Behnaz Sanjana how she draws from her own experiences to enable Arab women to take life by the horns and live it fully.
“When I tell young women about myself – graduate of Georgetown University, Magna cum Laude, on the Dean’s Honour List, managing director of Deutsche Bank in Switzerland, high-energy mother who raised two kids – they want to be like me,” Dina says. “Then I tell them about the time in my life where I couldn’t get out of bed due to a debilitating emotional state, feeling hopelessly misunderstood, alone, undeserving and ashamed of myself. Would they still want to be Dina Bseisu?”
Despite being a high achiever academically and professionally, Dina harboured the terrible secret of being in the seemingly bottomless pit of depression and anxiety for years. Only when she hit rock-bottom did she muster the courage to ask for help. “It is the bravest and most difficult thing I’d ever done, and had I seen the light 20 years earlier, I would’ve made a better life, better decisions and spared myself and my loved ones all the pain,” she says.
Challenge To Change (C2C) is Dina’s initiative to help Arab women facing a similar plight. “Nobody judges people for physical ailments, but mental illnesses are not seen kindly in our society. It’s important to be aware of and identify mental health issues to be able to help our daughters in distress. I was lucky to survive it; many others lose their lives to suicide,” she laments.
What began with Dina talking about and then writing of her experience, has grown into a fully-fledged platform for Arab women’s empowerment, offering them a variety of life-changing programmes. With its core values – engage, empower, educate and employ, it has positively impacted disadvantaged Arab women from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. There are plans to start programmes in Bahrain by the end of 2019. “We are not a mental health website. We are a holistic community providing confidence and a sense of belonging to Arab women, who in their moments of despair, can turn to someone they trust, and who understands them. Some of them have lost homes and families to conflict. We give them hope, something to smile about during the time we interact with them.”
The organisation aims to empower women with various capacity-building events, workshops and webinars, employability programmes, mentoring initiatives, digital skills like coding and programming, and strategic partnerships to impart work-readiness for them to be independent, confident contributors to society.
Dina continues to spread awareness about mental health from recognised platforms, and why it’s so important that it be addressed, especially in parts of the Middle East where young women are most prone to it today. “I ask young ladies to believe in and stand up for themselves and pursue their visions. I urge mothers to accept their challenges while keeping their aspirations alive, and empowering their daughters to break stereotypes. To those in their mature years, I’d say, the world is your oyster. Do what you have dreamed of without fear of judgment; this is your time.
“Whatever your story, embrace it and keep walking.”
