There is a saying that: “A problem shared is half solved,” however, I do not know how many people actually believe in this adage.

I meet many people who do not agree to this saying and would rather pretend that all is well when indeed all is not well.

I have also learnt that whatever road that I am travelling, would be travelling or intend to travel, someone might have travelled that road before, so it only makes sense for me to learn from other experiences and build on it to enable me do better.

This article for lack of a better word is meant to inspire and provoke people to reach out and seek genuine help.

Let me create a scenario to make you understand what I mean by daring to reach out. I had two friends, Ama and Akua.

Both have been married for five years without a child, this situation caused them a lot of stress and frustration.

Ama, a 34 year- old lady, with an enviable career life would rather not talk about her situation, even though she has a lot of pressure from in-laws and the society as a whole. She wanted to do all she could and within her power to conceive.

She went from hospital to hospital, met many doctors, went through many surgical procedures to no avail.

Once she decided to go in for the procedure that resulted in what is called “test-tube baby”.

Ama did not even discuss her decision with her own mother, she went ahead, the procedure went wrong and she lost her life, yes, she lost her life.

Akua, on the other hand was frustrated the first two years of marriage but she decided to seek the face of God. She talked to many counsellors, friends and finally decided to totally wait and depend on God.

The Bible says that in the multitude of counsellors there is safety, Akua is still living in expectation of having her own child, she is doing pretty well on her job as a secretary and she says she is much happier.

We live in a society where people tend to hide their challenges and issues, probably because they think that it is embarrassing to have problems. Many try as much as possible to contain their challenges till it explodes and it is really embarrassing.

However, I think there is genuine help out there, whatever, one’s challenge is; there is someone who has travelled that road, barrenness, sicknesses and diseases of all kind, family issues children’s issues, employment, education, just name it.

There is someone out there who has gone through it, who has experienced what you are experiencing now and is willing to share his or her experience and help you through the situation.

It may be true, that people are not genuine, some may be happy with your challenge, some may gossip about you after confiding in them, and a whole lot of excuses that prevent people from opening up on their concerns.

But would you rather open up and be bombarded with a barrage of solutions, good and bad where you have an opportunity to make a decision based on a wide range of advice, or trust just one individual who would give you a “killer advice”.

I will always opt for positivity, open-mindedness and the likes of that. I think that our society has reached a stage where we need to encourage openness.

Above all, no matter what your religion is, I recommend that you also open up to God through prayer on whatever situation you find yourself in, and if you are indeed a believer of God, He surely will show you the way.

Reach out, I say, reach out for there is genuine help out there!