Reduce Mental Health Stigma in Nigerian Communities at Scale

Over 40% of Nigerians with mental health conditions never seek professional help, primarily because of stigma. Family members hide relatives with psychotic disorders rather than seeking care. Depression is dismissed as laziness. Anxiety is a sin of insufficient faith in some communities. Evidence from other countries shows that stigma can be reduced through sustained, community-tailored communication campaigns — but effective mental health de-stigmatisation campaigns for Nigerian cultural contexts barely exist. Your challenge is to design a mental health stigma reduction campaign for Nigeria that reaches 10 million people in 12 months, is grounded in the specific stigma narratives active in Nigerian communities, works through trusted community messengers (religious leaders, community elders, community health workers), and produces measurable attitude change at six months. Submit a campaign design document (max 12 pages) including: the stigma narratives you address and the evidence base, the messenger strategy, the content and channel design, attitude change measurement methodology, cost per person reached, and a deployment plan across five states. Judging criteria: 35% grounding in specific Nigerian stigma narratives, 30% messenger strategy and community trust, 20% attitude change measurement design, 15% cost and scale model.