Attendees : Gaurav, Lalit, Sree, Itisha, Sudarshan, Bharath,
Santhosh and Soham.
Banyan Annual Review :
(Presentation is available at :
http://www.ashanet.org/projects
ACTION ITEMS :
- Update project page with conf call minutes, site
visit reports etc.
- Get in touch with project partner and get more details on new proposal
Background :
* An org catering to rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration of
mentally ill destitute women
* Started by Vandana and Vaishnavi when students of the Madras School
of Social work.
* Asha Austin came to know about the project through a proposal
brought by Santhosh
* We started with support for Vocational Training/Occupational therapy
- just tailoring stream
* The next year we supported recurring costs of all VT/OT streams
Social Context :
* The state of mental health care is not all that good in India - lack
of awareness and mushrooming of faith based healing centers
* Stigma associated with mental illness is heavy
* Gender based discrimination - women often victims of abuse
* Various reasons for destitution and also trauma
Banyan's model of Care :
* Rescue
- 24 hr Helpline
- Working with Police
- Transit home
* Rehabilitation
- Social worker assigned
- Development of a schedule with VT/OT activities and other therapy
sessions etc.
- VT/OT training
* Reintegration
- Tracing roots and actual reintegration with families.
- VT/OT training, placement and working women's hostel
- Permanent stay home in Kovalam
Achievements :
* Reaching out to more and more affected women.
* Got the GoI to adopt the model. Now banyan is taking ownership in
PHCs (Primary Healthcare Centers) of 30 villages to integrate mental
health care.
* Training institute for many individuals interested in this social work field.
* Reaching out to new communities - networking to create same model in
other areas
* Organized National level conferences for NIMHANS
* A movement for rights of the mentally ill - effort to create a
residents' group called 'Vizhudugal' and to push for changes in law.
Challenges :
* New permanent home in Kovalam just started. Will need more efforts
and will need to wait to see how things turn out.
* Expand the working womens' hostel model to more communities outside
of the banyan.
* New employment generation activities
* Struggle to change laws in place for mentally disabled.
* Stewards need to put in effort to keep project page constantly
updated - calls being made, just need to upload docs.
New Proposal :
* We have some basic info on a possible new proposal
* Skills training courses and placement offered by the TVS foundation
* Need to gather more info before presenting to group.
Networking :
* A lot of effort on the part of the Project Partner
* We can do a lot from our side too - up-to-date project page,
reaching out to other projects that can benefit from banyan's training
modules, Put banyan in touch with womens' rights advocacy groups and
other orgs with expertise in the area etc. There is a lot of scope for
us to contribute constructively.
Parivar :
Lalit and Sree have been working with this organization for a few
years now. They presented a brief background about the organization.
(Presentation is available at :
http://data.ashanet.org
ACTION ITEMS :
- Itisha might do a site visit when she goes to India.
- Lalit and Sree will check with Vinayak on current requirements to
see if a proposal needs to be submitted for Asha Austin
* Located in outskirts of Calcutta
* Caters to children under risk
- Street children (homeless)
- Orphans
- Children of forced sex laborers
- Children of single parents
- Children from underprivileged backgrounds.
* Vinayak founded the organization right after he graduated from IIM.
* Starting with 3 children in a rented space, the org. now serves as a
home for 500+ children
* No drop outs till date
* Its NOT an adoption agency
* Education, Medical and Parental care are provided.
* For upto primary school all children go to Parivar's own school (A
campus with complete building etc.)
* For middle and high school children are mainstreamed into government schools.
* Recent effort has been to identify children from interior tribal
pockets of Jharkhand to provide education and other support for them.