The non-governmental organization present in West and Central Africa works for the prevention of mental health disorders among women.
Indices related to mental health disorders in Africa have prompted the Bluemind Foundation to look into the subject through innovative initiatives. Currently, three French-speaking African countries benefit from Bluemind’s innovative mental health programs: Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon. In these three countries, the organization implements prevention initiatives to impact the maximum number of women exposed to mental health disorders. It relies on three levers to make mental health, health, and make it accessible to all thanks to the dynamism of its founder Marie Alix de Putter.
First, the organization deploys for this purpose through Praxis, an American organization working in favor of leadership acceleration and which offers coaching, mentoring, by facilitating fundraising. It grants privileged support to people who promote certain values and supports, in addition to individuals, non-governmental organizations, private companies as well as project leaders who have a vision of impact.
Next, Bluemind also relies on The Fixer, an international humanitarian show broadcast on the American channel BYUtv that highlights local initiatives. After contacting Bluemind in May 2024, The Fixer, which goes from country to country working on space renovation, produced a show in Togo as part of suicide and addiction prevention. The Fixer allowed Bluemind to create a call center to provide young people with a support space. The show provides access to a network of lawyers, law firms in the United States, donors, patrons…
Finally, the organization offers training through the Heal by Hair component, an innovative program based on the training of mental health ambassadors. It offers free hairdressing training to women, making them the link between women affected by mental health disorders and community health workers for care. Nearly 1,000 women have already been trained in the three countries, reaching approximately 300,000 women. In Cameroon, this pilot program has trained women in Douala. In 2027, Bluemind intends to train more women in large cities but also in rural and semi-rural areas.
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All these initiatives aim to strengthen existing provisions in favor of mental health, which seems to be relegated to the background. According to the WHO, about 150 million people suffer from mental health disorders in Africa. According to the organization, 1 in 3 women or 1 in 2 women suffer from these disorders. And the conditions for prevention and care do not allow for an effective fight against this phenomenon. The number of psychiatrists is insignificant compared to the population; governments allocate about 2% of the health budget to mental health. However, according to Marie Alix de Putter, “mental health is health.”
During a press conference given on March 7, 2026, Marie Alix de Putter stated that Bluemind, of which she is the founder, plans to reach more than five million people by 2030. In this perspective aimed at making mental health accessible to all, she plans to train 10,000 hairdressers and deploy them in at least 20 strategic cities to reach at least 1.5 million women. She also aims to strengthen community mental health infrastructure and financially support mental health research. She thus estimates the cost of deployment at approximately 7 million euros, or 4.6 billion CFA francs.
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