Welwyn Garden City-based international development charity, Carers Worldwide was joint winner in the Mental Health Charity Film category at the world’s biggest sustainability film festival.

Carers Worldwide, which aims to support unpaid family carers in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, made the winning film to raise awareness of mental health conditions in rural communities in India.

The winners of the Big Syn International Film Fest were publicly announced with their films screening on Europe’s biggest screen, London’s iconic Piccadilly Lights on 14 November.

Carers Worldwide was set up by husband-and-wife team Anil and Ruth Patil, The winning film was made as part of one of their projects with local charity partner Uma Educational and Technical Society, funded by Vitol Foundation. One in every seven people in India is living with a mental illness, and more than 80% have not received any form of mental health treatment.

Founder and executive director of Carers Worldwide, Anil Patil, said: “We’re so pleased that through winning this award, our film is getting this acknowledgment and exposure and we’re able to tell more people about the work we do and the need for it.”

The organiser of the festival and awards, Big Syn Institute, is part of the Centre for Big Synergy, a civil society organisation (CSO) of the United Nations Department of the Social and Economic Affairs, tasked to create a thriving, capable and responsible future.