Exile, mental health and the Saite channel ^{CEFR B2}

The February 2021 coup in Myanmar caused many people to leave and created new challenges for activists and ordinary citizens. Exile Hub, a partner of Global Voices in Southeast Asia, rose in response to the coup and focuses on empowering journalists and human rights defenders. In this context some exiles have turned to mental health work as a quiet but important form of resistance.

Lucas grew up in Mandalay as the youngest of five siblings, studied microbiology at Yadanabon University and later ran his familys rubber production business. As a young man he trained in tennis and once dreamed of representing Myanmar at the Olympics. Years of disciplined training ended without the chance he had hoped for, and the coup brought larger changes: the economy collapsed, his mother died, and his father planned to remarry. In 2022 he left Myanmar and took blue-collar jobs in a country where he did not speak the language. The experience was humbling and very lonely, and that loneliness helped push him toward a new project.

After talking with a friend trained in psychology, Lucas and his colleague identified a gap in mental health support for Myanmar communities and strong stigma around psychological care. In October 2022 he launched the Saite YouTube channel to raise awareness, support young people, offer practical coping strategies and nurture resilience. Saite now has nearly 9,000 subscribers. Without a laptop, Lucas made the first animated videos entirely on his mobile phone and summarised the channels approach with the motto "to work with what we have, not focus on what we lack." Exile Hub offers Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) services and can connect people with trained professionals. For Lucas and others in exile, creating spaces for healing helps sustain communities and their wider goals, and so the work acts as a form of resistance.