A Grade 10 pupil in Athlone wants his classmates to stop suffering in silence

The most honest line in this story comes from the founder himself: “We are not a clinical organisation.”

Ra-id Williams is a Grade 10 pupil at Belgravia Secondary School in Athlone, Cape Town. He founded the Peer Educators Foundation in 2025, at 16, according to Athlone News, and at the time of that report in January 2026 it was in the process of registering as a non-profit. There are no premises yet, no big budget and, as far as public coverage shows, no pretensions.

What it has is a clear job description. The foundation focuses on youth mental health awareness, peer education and youth empowerment, with attention to anxiety, depression, stress, burnout, grief and emotional well-being. It runs peer-support spaces, teaches coping skills and encourages pupils to seek help early.

That last part is the quiet engine. Most teenagers who struggle do not walk into a clinic. They tell a friend, or nobody. A peer educator sits at the point where that first conversation happens, which is why schools around the world keep reinventing the idea. Williams is not claiming to replace a psychologist. He is trying to be the person in the next desk who knows what to say and where to point.

According to the article, Williams started the foundation out of his own experiences and his sense that many pupils struggle quietly. The plan is school-based programmes across the Cape Town metro, beginning with the Belgravia area.

This is early-stage work, and it should be described that way. Athlone News gives no figures on how many pupils have taken part, and we have not found other coverage to cross-check it. But the model is sound, the founder is realistic about its limits, and the timing is right. A school is a good place to start a mental health movement, because that is where the problem already lives.