Four grassroots, community-led mental health organisations  
A team of 25 creatives across five countries unite  
One story.  
Countless ways to care.  
 

What Makes You Proud: How Communities Care for Mental Health is a globally collaborative film sharing the stories of four grassroots, community-led organisations across Nigeria, Palestine, Colombia, and Vietnam. 

This blog series shines a spotlight on each of the community-based mental health initiatives (CBMHIs) featured in the film What Makes You Proud: How Communities Care for Mental Health. 

While the film brings their stories together across continents, this series takes a closer look, highlighting each organisation’s work, their journey, their hopes for the film, and the creative teams who helped bring their stories to life. 

Watch the trailer of the film here.  

Presenting: Corporación LBT Raras no tan Raras, Colombia

We dream of a world where all LBT people can breathe, heal, and exist without fear, from the togetherness, self-care, and healing networks.

LBT Raras Team

LBT Raras's Aspirations for the Film:

A tool of transformative visibility of experiences of LBT people in the Colombian Caribbean: The team hopes that the film can serve as a tool for transformative visibility, bringing forward the experiences of LBT people in the Colombian Caribbean, and reflecting their daily struggles, resistance, and practices of collective care. Beyond its artistic or informative value, they see the film as a way to generate empathy and awareness, create space for dialogue with institutions, and open doors for more inclusive public policies. 

A Living Memory and Inspiration for Action: The team also hopes the film will serve as both a historical record and a source of inspiration. It captures a living memory of what has been built together through initiatives such as Un Respirito, Las Raras del Folclor, Una Escuela Rara, and other collective processes. In documenting these efforts, the film allows future generations to reflect on these journeys and recognise that they were not alone. 

At the same time, the team hopes the film will inspire other LBT organisations and individuals to create initiatives centred on self-care, community care, mental health, and justice. By sharing these stories, they hope to mobilise new alliances, support, and resources to strengthen care spaces that have often remained invisible. 

Opening Space for Dialogue and Change: Ultimately, they hope the project can open spaces for critical reflection, both within their communities and beyond, and act as a bridge for dialogue with state, social, and cultural actors, showing that care is not only something personal, but central to social justice and the sustainability of their lives. 

Watch the film here in Spanish.

Watch the film here in English <<Insert YT>>

The LBT Corporation Raras No Tan Raras was born in 2018 in Barranquilla as a political bet of lesbian, bisexual, and trans women who decided to resist and transform the violence and inequalities that cross their lives. Through artivism, political participation, and education, they have made their struggles and contributions visible in a Caribbean that historically makes them invisible. You can discover their work here.

What inspired Corporación LBT Raras no tan Raras’s work in mental health? 

Over the years, the corporation has identified that prejudice, machismo, lesbophobia, biphobia, and transphobia not only affect the basic rights of LBT people but also generate deep emotional and psychological wounds that are often invisible. With the arrival of the pandemic in 2020, this reality became even more evident. They noticed how many colleagues in the organisation suffered the ravages of confinement on their mental health, forced cohabitation with their aggressors, and violence due to prejudice in family contexts. This was compounded by stress and anxiety caused by unemployment and, as a result, financial and food instability. 

It was there that they came to a stronger understanding of the importance of mental health- Care, from the individual and collective, became a political and feminist principle: to accompany, listen to each other, heal together, and recognise self-care as a form of resistance in the face of a hostile environment. 

Listen to them on Spotify here.

Follow them on Instagram here.

This film was shot by noted filmmaker Sara Montoya and her team.

‘What Makes You Proud’ film features three other CBMHIs from Vietnam, Palestine and Nigeria. Watch the full film here.

Read all the blogs in this series here.