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People who identify as transgender face stigma, isolation and harassment while often struggling to come to terms with their gender identity. They also disproportionately experience mental health difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to present the voices of transgender people in the Republic of Ireland (RoI) in regard to the issues they are facing, improvements they would like to see made to schools, workplaces, services and society in general and whether mental health supports fulfil their needs.

Ten open questions were embedded within a quantitative online survey (LGBTIreland study) on factors impacting social inclusion, mental health and care. These open questions were re-analysed with exclusive focus on the transgender participants (n = 279) using content/thematic analysis.

The participants in this study reported significant signs of mental distress. The following themes emerged: impact of stigma, deficiencies in mental health services, need for education on transgender identity, importance of peer support, achieving self-acceptance and societal inclusion questioned.

Efforts to recruit young participants have led to a possible over-representation in this study.

The findings suggest the need for improvement in mental health support services, including further education in how to meet the needs of transgender individuals.

Transgender people in Ireland experience social exclusion. The need for more inclusivity was emphasised most in secondary schools. Education on transgender identities in all contexts of society is recommended by the participants.

This study reports on the largest group of transgender participants to date in RoI. Their voices will affect perceptions on social inclusion and mental health care.

Since 2008, the Global North universities and the rural district of Chilanga, Kasungu in Malawi, have endeavored to create a dialogic, inclusive, and reciprocal knowledge-transfer project. Numerous years of consultation with community members resulted in the creation of Transformative Praxis: Malawi, a project dedicated to bettering human conditions in one of the most impoverished areas of the world. Through participatory action research (PAR), the Malawian community strongly indicated the need to foster critical thinking, creativity, and social entrepreneurship in the areas of Education, Health, and Development. Although local women were prominent in all stakeholder meetings, a growing suspicion emerged that the inclusive intent of our research-based work was actually supporting existing male-oriented power structures, which exist despite ongoing assurances of the active participation of women in decision-making, and the purported matrilineal societal nature of Malawi. Through a progressive series of critical incidents connected to literature on PAR and women in impoverished communities, this chapter chronicles the manner in which local Chilanga women unexpectedly and unconventionally solidified their participation and authentic leadership in a Global North and South initiative based in Malawi.