About Us
About Us
Bridging research, practice, and global impact
Safe Roots Consulting is a registered Manitoba firm specializing in mental health consulting and counselling services. We provide culturally grounded, evidence-based support in mental health, suicide prevention, and community well-being — working with international organizations, NGOs, governments, academic institutions, community agencies, and individuals and families. Our expertise spans Global South and West African contexts as well as local practice here in Canada.
Our work is built on a simple conviction: effective mental health solutions must be rooted in community, shaped by culture, and grounded in evidence. We do not import generic frameworks dressed up in cultural language. We build solutions that are genuinely rooted in evidence, in community, and in practice.
Why Safe Roots
Safe Roots Consulting was founded to close a gap. Organizations working in international development and global mental health often lack access to consultants who have actually worked in the communities they aim to serve — who speak the languages, understand the belief systems, and have sat across from clients in under-resourced settings.
Safe Roots exists to close that gap. Every engagement draws on genuine field knowledge, rigorous research, and a deep respect for the communities at the centre of the work.
20+
Years of combined clinical, research, and policy experience
3+
Countries of active fieldwork and practice
1st
empirically grounded suicide prevention framework for African informal settlements
Leadership
Karamat Ayotola Kelani — Principal Consultant
MSW · RSW · PhD Candidate (Social Work). Karamat is a Registered Social Worker and doctoral researcher with over 20 years of combined clinical, government policy, university teaching, and community-based research experience spanning Nigeria and Canada. Karamat developed the Community-Centric Suicide Prevention Framework (CLSPF) through doctoral fieldwork in Makoko, Lagos, and is completing a PhD in Social Work at the University of Manitoba.
