About
Water Yourself is a youth-led social enterprise founded in 2021 by Ornella Dechen.
We are a mental health organization working at the intersection of community, culture, and care designing and delivering accessible, affordable, and dignified mental health support for the people who need it most and have historically had access to it the least.
Across the African continent, the gap between mental health need and available care is one of the largest in the world. Stigma runs deep. Resources are scarce. And millions of people are navigating their pain in silence, without support, without options and often subjected to inhuman practices.
We believe mental health is not a privilege. It is a right. And we are building the systems, the workforce, and the culture to make that right real in Madagascar, across Africa, and beyond.
Mission, Vision & Values
Our Mission
To make mental health care, support and education accessible, affordable, and scalable across every level of the society by designing and delivering evidence-based programs, training the next generation of peer healers, and advocating for mental health as a fundamental human right across Africa.
Our Vision
An Africa where every person, regardless of where they live, who they are, or what they have been through can access mental health support with dignity, without stigma, and without financial barriers. A continent where mental health support is present into schools, workplaces, communities, and national policy.
Our Values
Every person we serve deserves to be seen, heard, and treated with full respect regardless of their identity, background, or circumstances.
We build from within communities, with communities, because that is where lasting change lives.
We don't wait for people to hit rock bottom before we show up. We believe in catching people early, building resilience before the breaking point, and normalizing mental health conversations before they become emergencies.
We serve everyone. That means actively reaching the people most often left out: LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, rural communities, climate-displaced families, and those navigating intersecting forms of marginalization.
We draw from global evidence and local wisdom in equal measure. Our programs are not imported, they are designed for the specific languages, cultures, and contexts of the communities we serve.
The name
There is a reason we chose these two words.
Water is not optional. It is not a luxury. It is not something you earn. Every living thing, every person, every plant, every community cannot survive without it. Water is the most fundamental thing there is.
Mental health is the same.
There is no health without mental health. It touches every part of your life: how you learn, how you love, how you work, how you live. And just like water, when it is missing, everything suffers. When it is present, everything grows.
But the name means something else too.
"Water Yourself" is a call to action. It is a reminder that taking care of your mind is not selfishness, it is survival. In a world that constantly asks you to pour into others, into your family, your work, your community, "Water Yourself" says: you matter too. Your healing matters. Your wellbeing is not a footnote. It is the foundation.
The team
Water Yourself is youth-led, community-powered, and people-centered. We are not a traditional organization with a long hierarchy and closed doors. We are a growing groupment of young leaders, mental health professionals, advocates, peer educators, volunteers, and people with lived experience, all working together toward the same goal: making mental health care real and accessible for every person we serve.
At every level we operate, the people driving our work are deeply connected to the communities they serve. Many of them have walked the same roads as the people they support.
As we grow, so does our team. We are constantly expanding our network of passionate, skilled, and community-rooted people who share our conviction that mental health is a right, not a privilege.
