© (photo credit: PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESPERSON OFFICE)First Lady Michal Herzog attends the opening ceremony of RU OK
Israel's first lady Michal Herzog on Thursday attended the opening ceremony for the RU OK project for Enosh, the Israeli mental health association.
RU OK was launched in Australia in 2009 in order to increase dialogue about mental health.
Now, Israel will be the second country to implement the project.
Herzog said that the initiative is exciting and that it comes from the idea of solidarity with one another as human beings.
"May we all have a year of hope and sensitivity and a year of health, in mind and body."
"In the last two and a half years of the global pandemic, so many people have joined the circle of those struggling with their soul, and in the midst of this journey of coping, a great many fears, guilt, longing, anger, distance and dependence arise, and together with all these, and as if they were not enough, intertwined in this struggle is a struggle with another 'demon' - A demon whose name is prejudice. That's why we have to [talk about] the issue and talk without fear about mental health."
"May we all have a year of hope and sensitivity and a year of health, in mind and body," Herzog added.