Greetings!
Inviting everyone to join us for our next Narrative Gathering “Ankahi”.
Rakesh Ghone will be sharing his journey with narrativeideas practices through the Community Mental Health Training program.
Let us hear his wonderful story in his words.
Date: October 6th Saturday
Time: 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Venue: Ummeed Training Facility
Zoom is available for those who cannot come in person.
Salma Safree a participant from Setco Foundation reciting a poem documenting her lived experience during Community Mental Health Training Program – 4 using Narrative Ideas and Practices.
Raviraj Shetty and Jehanzeb Baldiwala from Ummeed facilitated a two-day introductory workshop with Aileen Dsouza from Sethu on Narrative Ideas and Practices.
Look!
It’s here
It’s there;
I can feel it
Why don’t you see it?
I can feel it
I can sense it
I’m sure it’s there
Yet again, it has come back to bother me;
That preoccupation with my health
Something is holding me back from
leading a life of vigour
Is it (the preoccupation with health)
holding me?
(Pause)
Or am I holding it?
-Mala Chadha
It was an extremely enriching experience and has got most of us more aware and conscious of actively engaging and opening more conversations about gender and sexuality.
Prathama Raghavan, one of our MHTP – 7 participants is a Disability and Mental Health Practitioner consulting with children, young people, families, and schools for their well – being and working towards nurturing safe spaces for all ways of being.
In her article, she explains how consulting with children and young people on the Spectrum forced her to examine these ideas of ‘normal’ and taught her how to be an ally to the Autistic Community.
Jehanzeb Baldiwala and Raviraj Shetty from the Mental Health Team at Ummeed Child Development Center recently conducted a short term training on Narrative Ideas and Practices in Kolkata.
Here’s the five-day shift shared by Kolkata Group to describe their journey of exploring the first module of Narrative training in July 2018.
The 5-day Shift
Jittery, curious, excited were we
Before we met Jehanzeb and Ravi.
Landscapes, spaces, maps and stories,
Kept us wondering ‘what were these!?!’
Lost in translation, and sometimes in groups,
We landed up among the constellation of ‘new(s)’.
Cups of tea – black, white and sweet –
Picnic baskets, and homely treats.
Some from here, and some from there,
Together, we were everywhere.
Circular, classroom, and disarray
Chairs and minds moved in everyway!
Unfolding, piecing, bit by bit,
What we knew but weren’t doing it
Just like this…but in our own way…
Validated thankfully by R & J!
Identity, Action and Landscape
We’ve come to a place of no escape…
From wonderful ideas, metaphors and agency,
Stories shifting, new, and sparkly!
– Jyotika, Sweta, Asimayan, Mihika & Shaneel
Kolkata, July 2018
Narrative Dots
Work in progress gradually
Each of us is inevitably
Standing tall with possibility
Over landscapes of action and identity
Decentered yet influential
Always non judgmental
The problem we externalise
Images and words help us visualise
Mastering the art of Storying
Over the course of loitering
Know how, skill and action
Kolkatans live up to the artsy reputation
The Mental Health Team at Ummeed collaborated with community workers from Sahyog to understand mental health in their context through narrative practices. The first block of two days saw a rich exploration of ideas, practices in the community that may or may not support people’s mental health and the workers’ hopes for their communities.
