500 students join Bengaluru run to open up conversations on mental health
More than 2,000 people, including around 500 school students, took part in the World Mental Health Day Run at Cubbon Park in central Bengaluru on Sunday, in the lead-up to World Mental Health Day on October 10. The youth-led event aimed to make conversations about emotional well-being among young people easier to begin and sustain.
Youth-led initiative brings city together
The run was organised by Imaan Zara Khan, a Grade 11 student at a private school in Bengaluru and a 1M1B Changemaker. Designed to be inclusive and accessible, the event featured 3K, 5K and 10K categories and drew participants from across the city’s student and running communities. Organisers positioned the run not just as a fitness activity but as a public platform to encourage dialogue about the realities of adolescent mental health.
The ‘Unspoken Run’ and its message
The 3K segment, titled “Unspoken Run,” carried the message, “A step for every conversation we never had.” Participants were encouraged to see each kilometre as part of a broader effort to normalise talking about mental health—particularly the first, often difficult, conversations that can help a young person find the right support. The framing aimed to reduce stigma and signal to students that seeking help is both valid and necessary.
Project S.A.F.E.: from awareness to action
Sunday’s run formed part of Project S.A.F.E. (Student Advocacy for Emotional Well-Being), a student-led initiative founded by Imaan. The project focuses on adolescent mental health through research, storytelling and systems-level advocacy, with a central emphasis on how schools and communities recognise distress and connect young people with appropriate care.
According to the initiative, its work examines key stages in the support pathway: how signs of distress among young people are identified, how they seek help, how adults—both at home and in school—respond, and how educational institutions can create clearer, more reliable routes to the right services. By looking at gaps and responses across these stages, Project S.A.F.E. seeks to move beyond general awareness and toward practical, implementable support structures for students.
Voices from the organiser
“Through S.A.F.E., I want to move the conversation beyond awareness and ask a harder question: when a young person is struggling, what happens next? Who recognises the signs, who responds, and how do they reach the right support?” Imaan said.
What’s next
Following the Bengaluru run, Imaan is set to present Project S.A.F.E. at the 10th 1M1B Summit at the United Nations Office in Geneva, where she will join youth leaders, institutions and stakeholders from around the world. The presentation will highlight the project’s approach and its call for schools and communities to build clearer, more compassionate pathways for adolescent mental health support.
Why it matters
The turnout at Cubbon Park underscored growing community interest in youth emotional well-being and reinforced the need to translate awareness into action. By framing a citywide run as a starting point for difficult but necessary conversations, organisers and participants put the spotlight on practical questions of recognition, response and access to support—issues that Project S.A.F.E. aims to address in classrooms and beyond.
