Two (wo)Men Down, A Cyclone and The Banyan

Okay, so today our group total was four people, including Marjorie. Two wo(men) down, one wo(man) up. Today we visited The Banyan, an NGO that serves homeless women with serious mental illnesses. It is one of a few organizations that addresses this need. The location of the community was the village of Kovalam. It was a peaceful one-hour ride from Chennai, even among the looming storm, cyclone Laila. We arrived this morning and were greeted by a very friendly bunch of residents to the background music of a local Indian soap opera. We all felt overwhelmed by our celebrity status as they each wanted to shake our hands.

Our fabulous guide for the day was Miss Kiruthika. She is a social worker who has been with the Banyan for 10 months. More info about the Banyan can be found at: http://www.thebanyan.org/. Mrs. Kiruthika is in charge of pretty much everything at the PC ("Protected community" where the women live) and it is amazing to think of how she is practically able to run this center with a staff of only 10. She does everything from keep the women inside when it rains to dealing with emergency episodes overnight. She refers to the doctors and participates collaboratively in their care. In addition, there are four health care workers who take care of the women's health needs at the center. The only training they receive is at the center but they are able to deliver medications and care for the hygiene and personal needs of the women. It is truly impressive how calm and well-run the entire environment is. The women living there participate in their own care by cooking and doing chores  and small taks that are appropriate for their functional status. They are reimbursed for their work as an incentive. This location appeared to be a wonderful sanctuary where the women were able to be themselves and have their needs addressed. This safe place is also so inspiring because of the normalization of mental illness. Kiruthika does not speak of the women as people with problems, rather she addresses all of their functional aspects and told us stories about the ladies as if they were completely normal and merely had different sorts of needs. For example, she told us of a lady that liked to go out all of the time. Kiruthika explained her story in a way that did not make wandering seem abnormal. Rather she said that going out was allowed so long as the women fulfilled their tasks., and their whereabouts known. The environment itself helped to normalize behaviors such as wandering. We found this very unique.

Next stop: The Banyan's Community Mental Health Project, where Davakir (coordinator of The Banyan's hospital and OPD) introduced us to the comprehensive inpatient and outpatient facilities. Here, Marjorie and Davakir delight in the baskets that are handmade by the patients and then sold at local shops...

Ferdinand and his friend take shelter from the storm.

Cyclone Laila brought MASSIVE waves to the coast (although we were tempted to take the pictured boat out for a spin, we elected to stay cozy in the car, listening to current Tamil pop hits)