Monday, August 01, 2005

The Banyan

This past Saturday, I got to sit in while someone I know interviewed Vaishnavi, one of the two founders of The Banyan, a rehabilitation center for mentally ill women. I had earlier heard stories of how the organization was started but had not spent much time thinking about it.
I am in great awe of such people who devote their lives to the pursuit of greater things than just material gains.

This organization was started around 12 years ago by two students of Womens Christian College who noticed a mentally ill woman on the streets outside their college. No one was willing to help the poor woman who was cast out of her home as her relatives didnt know what to do with her. These two women managed to take care of this mentally ill woman and so started of the organization which has since helped several hundred other mentally ill women recover from their illness and even managed to unite them back with their families (even in remote parts of India).

The two gutsy ladies managed to persevere in the face of great odds against their succeeding and today have set up a first rate organization that is at the forefront of such rehabilitation in Chennai if not in India. There is a greater awareness of the organization and what they do, but they still require a lot of help (they have an average deficit of around 2 LAKHS a month !) to continue the good work they do (people can contribute money/services). Do visit their web page detailing ways you can help and also keep a watch out for a big fund raiser they are organizing for August 15th at Sathyabama/Jeppiar Engineering College. Do help them in any way possible.

2 Comments:

Blogger Jiby said...

Hi Sushil,
Thanks for visiting my blog. Do you know if they do online money transfers to their bank account or something like that.

August 01, 2005  
Blogger silverine said...

I have heard so much about this oragnisation and the good work they do. I will surely pass the word around and give my mite too. Great work Sushil.

August 02, 2005  

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