Serenity Islamic Mental Health Awareness held its first conference from May 20th to 22nd at the Ahlul Bayt Centre and the Carleton University Campus.

Along with tackling an important but often taboo subject within Ottawa’s Muslim communities, mental illness, the conference also marked an unprecedented collaboration between members of Ottawa’s Sunni and Shia communities.

The team behind Serenity Islamic Mental Health Awareness is organizing a major conference from May 20th to 22nd to destigmatize mental illness within Muslim communities in Ottawa. Subjects that will be discussed during the conference will include depression, suicide, and addiction. “We want to destigmatize the mystery around mental illness and normalize it because it’s there every day,” Berak Hussain, the conference director, stated. Berak, an Iraqi Canadian professional counsellor, works with Carleton University’s Health and Counselling Services, who have endorsed the event.

The Ottawa Race Weekend, May 23-24 this year, is an annual two-day running event made up of multiple races. All the races start and end at Ottawa City Hall. There are 2K, 5K, 10K, half (just over 21km), and full marathons (just over 42km) in addition to a 1.2m kid’s marathon and a wheelchair marathon. Almost 50,000 people participated this year and the key event is the Ottawa Marathon. First held in 1975, the Ottawa Marathon is the largest marathon event in Canada and participants can use it to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Raysso Aden ran her first 5K on this weekend and shares her experience with Muslim Link.