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.

Muslim Link caught up with 17 year old Palestinian spoken word poet Haneen Al-Hassoun aka Freedom Writer as she prepares to compete in this week’s Youth Can Slam National Youth Poetry Festival.

Haneen Alhassoun recently won second place this month at the Ottawa Youth Poetry Slam. At 16, the Brookfield High School student is both humbled and excited about her win as she has been working towards it for the past two and a half years.