020 is committed to bringing pragmatic change at the UvA. Through our representatives, we are currently working hard on raising awareness and improving the university's approach to mental health, among many other topics. Living far from home, figuring out life on your own and schoolwork pressure affects the student community as a whole. We at 020 are trying to make lives a bit easier by supporting our students and connecting minds that are struggling so that we can all ‘do this together’!
To find out a bit about what is going on within the minds of our 020 family, I interviewed two members and here are some insights that we received!
When we asked Sasha what her role was in 020, she said, “My role in 020 is to constantly stay in touch with the reps, make sure I know all their upcoming meetings, advise them on who to contact for different type of issues and be their first person of contact when they need help of any sort”
She continued by saying “Mental health has been one of my priorities especially these last years. I believe that having a clear outline for students on who they can reach out to when in distress can have so much positive impact. I see the reps in the council first-hand working very hard on the mental health policy, both at faculty and central level and I see how passionate they are about it, taking into account all that is being done and everything that is in the process of being done I know that 020 will be able to raise a lot more awareness about it, as well as more students being more informed on who to contact when struggling with their ongoing issues.”
We also asked Filippo Alessio Secco aka Filo, to give us some insights on the mental health pillar and what potential he sees within 020 regarding changes being made about mental health awareness. First, he gave us some details about his role at 020 “I am the Director of the Politics Department at 020, overlooking the Policy Team and the Representatives, with the help of the respective Team Leaders of the two teams.”
When asked how his personal values aligned with the mental health pillar at 020, he said “As a student who had to leave family and friends behind for the opportunity of studying here in Amsterdam, I must say that mental health is a top priority not only for myself but I think for every student of the university. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, alone or without a path; we can fix all of this together, as a big family. The policies drafted by the policy team, brought about by the representatives aim at doing just that.”
He continued by telling us what kind of a potential he sees within 020 regarding mental health “020 works hard interdepartmentally to make sure that a common understanding of the mental health-related problems is addressed in the best way possible, aligning with issues that students from all around the university bring to us. We are with the people and for the people so it has never been a problem all through 020’s history to connect with everyone in the broader university society and we plan on keeping this approach up.”
Hope these interviews gave you some clarity about what is being going on within the party regarding the issue of mental health. For more information, check out the mental health booklet here: https://www.0-2-0.nl/booklets
Article by Shayree Majumder