Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka

by Shanthi Maargam
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Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka
Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka

Project Report | Nov 22, 2022
Recommencing with the New Normal - November 2022

By Razmina Razeen | General Manager

Introduction

 

With the dawn of the month of August, the staff have been coming into the center on a weekly basis and working the rest of the week from home as transport continued to be challenging to access. However, despite the weekly visits, the Shanthi Maargam team continued to push through and work on providing our counselling and psychosocial support services not only in the communities we work with but also for children and youth across the country.

 

Following is a summary of the events organised and services provided by Shanthi Maargam over the past three months.

 

Center Activities

 

The activities conducted with the children in the center was continued throughout the months from August to October.

 

A session was held to increase self-awareness in the children and youth who attend our centre. The activity involved them writing down their likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses and finally sharing them with the group. This helped them identify their strengths and weaknesses, and gain a deeper understanding of themselves. Sharing these also provided them with an opportunity to get to know their friends better. Overall, it encouraged them to improve their strengths and overcome their weaknesses. Math and English classes were conducted during this month.

 

During the English lessons conducted by a volunteer, the teacher instructed the children to describe a picture in English. In a math class conducted, the children presented the teacher with problems that they were unable to do on their own. They learned how to solve them together.

 

We had a movie day during the month of August and screened the Netflix film, The Sea Beast. The topic of discussion after the screening was violence and the negative impact it has.

 

The children were provided space to experience mindful colouring of mandalas. The activity's objective was to identify changes in their mood and physiological changes they experience when engaging in mindful activities.

 

Another art therapy based session was conducted where children were divided into two age groups and asked to draw up their dream futures, with what they want to incorporate into their lives when they grow up.

 

Children and youth were asked to roleplay difference scenareos with themes of conflict resolution, inclusion, sharing and gender equality. Their skits were full of laugher, energy and insght. Reflections included the importance of looking out for one another especially when someone is feeling upset, including others in their group, the importance of including everyone regardless of gender in activities.

 

Free play is always encouraged at our center, and with the recent addition of cricket equipment, we now have cricket matches every week.

Finally, since we opened the centre again, the children and youth have also used their time to play and relax in the safe space we provide for them at our center.

 

Provision of Free Counselling Services

 

The free counselling services offered by Shanthi Maargam in uplifting the mental health of children and youth continued despite the changes in working capacities and other political and economic challenges. Our hotline has been and continues to operare from 8.00 AM to 10.00 PM every day. We offer first aid and psychological counseling over the phone and one on one counseling sessions (currently conducted online due to prevailing situation) in Sinhala, Tamil and English.

The hotline counselling team had attended 1,245 hotline calls, 343 tele-counselling sessions through the hotline, 86 1-on-1 online counselling sessions and 39 new clients from July to October, 2022.

Strengthening the Vulnerable Queer Youth in Sri Lanka through Online Psychosocial support groups and other services

 

A project was commenced in collaboration with YellowDot in order to provide emotional support groups for LGBTQIA youth through a pre-determined theme group therapy model.

 

The support group commenced on the 4th of May. Since the formation of a WhatsApp group, before the sessions began, there has been a significant amount of engagement, interac;tion, openness and fun! This same dynamic continued and improved during our group sessions on Zoom. Thus far we have covered the introduction to the support group, explored the concepts of Gender Identity and Expression, and Sexual Orientation, factors that influence self-esteem and self-worth, and healthy communication.

 

The Yellow Dot Project had a check-in session with the support group in the month of August. The participants shared 5 questions for feedback regarding the support group to add to the paper we plan to publish. We received feedback on how the support group made a positive impact on their lives, ways to improve the next edition and how to continue the support group in the future.

 

Everyone mentioned how they missed the support group and how they look forward to continuing it monthly in an informal manner.

 

The abstract for our research paper on the support groups was accepted for presentation at the International Conference on Gender and Sexuality 2022 in the month of August. The findings were presented at the conference and won the best presentation award. We are no working on publication of the findngs of the support group.

 

 

The Helvetas Project - Youth Changemakers Circle

 

With the beginning of the month of August, we commenced our work with the project and reached out to two schoolsin close proximity to Shanthi Maargam, to conduct mental health workshops and screen for potential candidates to include in the upcoming leadership program.

 

The events were conducted by our project manager and community outreach coordinator and counsellors. The workshops were an introduction to the concept of mental health, its importance and the available services that exist for the youth to seek support.

 

Finally, the youth were introduced to a “Help Box”, where they could write down their struggles and place them in the box. They were assured that only the counsellors from Shanthi Maargam would have access to the contents of the box. We hope this box would provide them with a space to vent and seek support.

At the end of each session, they were provided with a time to speak to the counsellors from Shanthi Maargam if they felt the need to. A total of 429 attended the workshops from both schools and out of the 246 applicants, we were able to screen and select 114 candidates for the leadership program..

Shanthi Maargam conducted 2 sessions in Borella during the month of September. The first session screened a movie called “The Kashmir Files” for The Youth Changemakers Circle. The movie addresses one of the world's longest conflicts in the world and its effects on the people living in Kashmir. Following the movie was a presentation about the conflict and its effect briefly.

Next, participants were divided into groups where they discussed the movie, conflicts/violence and its repercussions, and later, presented their collective idea to everyone as groups. In their presentations, they highlighted how conflicts can affect people’s mental health, women, children, education and quality of life.

In the second session, Kapila Rasnayeka facilitated a music therapy session for the Youth Changemakers Circle. The purpose was to heal unhealed trauma through music. Several musical instruments were introduced at the beginning of the session and the youth changemakers circle. Later, it was discussed how to heal oneself with music and not engage in conflicts/violence.

 

A session was conducted during the month of October for Diwali. The awareness event centered on the “festival of lights” was executed in a manner in which the participants received an opportunity to gain a novel insight about Hinduism, its culture and subsequent religious practices and celebrations within a fun filled environment. The resource persons for the event: Yogendra Prasanth and Usman Jauffer commenced the event with an insightful introduction by discussing popular queries relevant to Diwali such as “What is Diwali?”, “Why do Hindus celebrate Diwali?” followed by “everyday practices of Hinduism”, consonantly debunking many misconceptions and myths relevant to Hinduism.

 

A counsellor from the Shanthi Maargam team  conducted the second art-based therapy session at one of the schools we were working with. The youth participating in this session were from Wanathamulla, Obesekarapura and Gothamipura. The session focused on violence and how to handle a violent situation in a proper manner. Topics such as domestic violence and violence in society were discussed as well.

 

Finally, the youth conveyed their takeaways through short skits, which portrayed how to behave in a positive manner, in a situation where there is conflict.

 

SVRI Project

 

The tech team who are assisting digital application development of the SVRI project, visited our centre to observe mock counselling sessions. The objective was to gain insight into our hotline and online counselling processes. An introductory presentation by carried out by our Deputy Head of Counselling Servives, followed by the role-played sessions conducted by the counselling team. In addition to that, our center Outreach Coordinator provided an introduction to the activities that happen in the center.

 

 

Employee Development

 

In August, training continued with bi-monthly supervision, peer supervision for the counselling team, and hotline training and weekly supervision for hotline counsellors.

 

Along with this, a session on DBT was facilitated by one of our Counsellors for the team. Two Hotline Supervision sessions were conducted, with case discussions and evaluating new approaches to them.

 

During the month of September a Hotline Training was conducted on Psychological First Aid, session termination, maintaining and analyzing thought records of clients and how to psychoeducation clients. Whereas in October, personal and professional development training sessions were conducted.

 

Social Media

 

In August, we created empowerment posts for International Youth Day and Women's Equality

Day. A hotline awareness post was also created to remind audiences that we provide safe spaces to be heard, and validated, during the current crisis in Sri Lanka.

 

Since the reopening of the centre, our social media stayed updated on events that took place

for the children and youth. From the 23rd of August, our Instagram page has reached 707 accounts in 30 days, an increase of 57.8%. Our total followers increased by 0.9% and overall, we had 534 content interactions on Instagram. Our Facebook reached 2,634 people, an increase of 866 and the post engagement was 580, an increase of 378. Overall, we also had 15

new likes on our page!

 

In September we commemorated Suicide Prevention Awareness month, focusing on the importance of reaching out for support, and informing our audience on what to do if they or someone they know is feeling suicidal.

 

In October we commemorated National Coming Out day with a few important reminders for LGBTIQ youth considering coming out with their identity. An awareness post was done on bullying and ragging in Sri Lanka and hidden signs of domestic violence, encouraging individuals to speak out and reach out for support.

We continued with our bi-weekly Self-care Saturday posts, stories and center updates along with these as well.

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Jul 26, 2022
Pushing through the Challenges

By Ammarah Ashraf | Deputy Head of Counselling Services

Mar 28, 2022
A new start with the advanced technology

By Asanka Senadeera | Community Outreach and Centre Coordinator

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Organization Information

Shanthi Maargam

Location: Battaramulla, Western - Sri Lanka
Website:
Facebook: Facebook Page
Twitter: @ShanthiMaargam
Project Leader:
Kamani Jinadasa
Battaramulla , Western Sri Lanka

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