LEAD’s journey dates back to 2016 when its founder, Kelvin Opiepie, having recovered from a series of severe depressive experiences, and near-suicide episodes, felt strongly about helping others come out of these melees having triumphed over them in mid-2016. With this conviction, he embarked on an in-depth exploration based on his experience where he uncovered unsettling and worrisome statistics during his research. He felt compelled to make a difference, but he grappled with the challenge of how and where to begin.

Over the next two years, he dedicated himself to continuous research and inquiry. By November 2018, Mr Kelvin took the pivotal first step towards what ultimately evolved into a pioneering endeavour in the mental health advocacy field in Africa.

LEAD Community Foundation, initially started as the LEAD Project, with fifteen (15) individuals who bought into the vision. At inception, the primary aim was to mitigate the consequences of depression and advance mental health awareness. Its inaugural outreach was with the youths at a religious institution in Delta State, Nigeria.

In its first two (2) years LEAD’s engagement in mental health was predominantly online, in collaboration with various organisations. However, the organization continued to expand across Nigeria. It achieved full operational status, in Edo and Delta states with volunteers dispersed throughout the two states across it’s regions, in spite of not being a registered non-governmental organisation with the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC).

Faced with the challenges of self-funding the initiative and coupled with the level of dedication of volunteers, the dream was almost aborted by Mr Kelvin but he held on to the strings of hope and resiliency through the testimonials of life-changing experiences he got from beneficiaries and clients. This served as his source of motivation and it encouraged him to persevere with his team.

From this humble beginning, LEAD has grown to become a leader in mental health advocacy in Africa, with a network of over three hundred (300) unpaid volunteers in active engagement across three countries and a track record of conducting more than sixty-two (62) onsite campaigns and collectively reaching an estimated audience of over thirteen thousand three hundred (13,300) throughout physical outreach and thirty thousand (30,000) through our online webinar, engaging individuals of various age bracket across different countries around the world.

In 2022, LEAD became a fully registered entity with the CAC. In addition to these modest milestones, LEAD has spearheaded various community initiatives and has provided critical counselling and assistance to over two hundred (200) individuals, which has helped them to overcome various mental health crises.

LEAD is on a mission to challenge the prevailing stigmas surrounding mental health in Africa, promote mental health literacy, equip individuals with essential skills for managing their mental well-being (and by extension support their families, communities and peers), advocate for mental health education in schools, and aid individuals in surmounting crises.

LEAD has continued to grow across different states in Nigeria and currently has a presence in twelve (12) states in Nigeria and presence in both Uganda and Kenya.