CAPE TOWN - The Cape Town International Kite Festival has been bringing colour to the skies for 32 years.
But organisers said the event is about more than just kites.
Cape Mental Health CEO Ingrid Daniels said it's also an opportunity to start important conversations about mental health and the need for support.
" So the Cape Town International Kite Festival is an amazing event that we've been hosting for 32 years. There's such amazing symbolism with kites, and so it's synonymous with our work and what we do. When you look up into this beautiful sky that you see behind us, um, it reminds us that kites soar against adverse winds despite the fragility of the string.
"And for every kite up there, there's someone down here who's in need of mental health support. And the work that we've been doing for these 113 years, the Cape Town International Kite Festival, is an amazing platform for us to change the conversations around mental health. We don't only want to talk about mental health during the Cape Town International Kite Festival or Mental Health Awareness Month, which is in October, but we want people to talk about mental health every day, 'cause our mental health should be prioritized.
"We live in a country where we are exposed to so many high-risk mental health conditions such as poverty, gang violence, violence, gender-based violence, and just the difficulties that people face)