Dear Bloggers and Vloggers:

Thank you for you supporting The Siwe Project. If you would like to participate in our first annual No Shame Day on Monday, July 2nd, 2012, we encourage you to do what feels right and to share in a way that feels comfortable to you. Please include the following pertinent information: Who are you? What mental illness are you or your loved one living with? How were you or he/she diagnosed? What propels you to speak publicly about the illness? How are you or your loved one treating the illness (therapy, meds, support groups, exercise, etc) and what prompted you/them to seek treatment?

In the interest of uniformity and solidarity, please begin and end your stories with “My name is ____, and I have No Shame. Please close by encouraging your audience to visit www.thesiweproject.org to share their stories or to hear others’ accounts of their battles with mental illness and to check out @thesiweproject on twitter, hashtag #NoShame. We understand that some of you are not affected by this issue personally and are simply lending your voice in support. We thank you for sharing your words of encouragement in any way you choose and we ask that if you promote the event via twitter, that you also use the hashtag #NoShame.

Thank you again for your willingness to participate in this very important cause. We sincerely appreciate you. While you are free to say whatever you like in your stories, we would like to express that The Siwe Project will only promote those blogs/vlogs that are appropriate in content and context and that are consistent with our mission.

Finally, if you will be participating, please be sure to email Bassey Ikpi at b.ikpi@thesiweproject.org or  Atrice Williams at a.williams@thesiweproject.org to let us know when your blog posts on July 2nd.

Thank you again.
I am Bassey Ikpi, and I have No Shame.