We adopted the butterfly as our symbol for this special day in 2012 to represent the beauty and uniqueness of our minds.

The butterfly is a symbolic expression of mind. A butterfly represents the beauty and uniqueness of each of our minds, but just like the butterfly, no two minds are identical, and all are unique. We encourage every Sri Lankan to display and wear a butterfly proudly to help raise awareness about mental health issues.

Every year, on and around World Mental Health Day, we go to the political leaders, state officials, educators, law enforcement authorities, corporate sector organizations, school children, and the general public with the butterfly. We bring some educational materials with us to make them aware of mental health and disability.

We pay our gratitude to the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) and the European Union-funded mental health project concluded in 2013 for taking the butterfly campaign's initial steps.