Let’s Talk and Walk Making words count

The CCC Foundation which stands for Courage, Compassion and Commitment recently organized a walk to raise awareness on mental health and suicide prevention. Since 2003 the Foundation has been passionate about serving those in need especially through their helpline that provides emotional support to people facing difficulties. This year, in view of World Suicide Prevention Day, the Foundation organized an inaugural walk titled ‘Let’s Talk and Walk’ from Galle Face Green up to Independence Square along with the Bikeathon which was held for the seventh consecutive year. 

The  Foundation was supported by many other charity organizations including Rotary, Rotaract, Interact, Leo and Roundtable. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Ranil Thilakarathne, Manager, 1333 Helpline said a lot of people talk about their physical health and forget about mental health. “Here we are promoting Let’s Talk and Walk which is an international celebration. At CCC there are many services available for example 1333 is a crisis support service that operates 24*7, it's toll free and we have crisis supporters who can speak in all three languages from around the island. The riders did a bikeathon covering 1333 km in 13 days covering 13 cities. When we started there were one or two calls per day but now we have around 100-110 counseling calls. Everybody is a trained crisis supporter and we follow the Lifeline model in Australia. What’s beautiful about it is that all of them are volunteers. The Walk happened for the first time but we joined an international celebration and we hope to continue it every year.”