Submitted by admin on Sun, 29/10/2006 - 01:31
The Banyan since 1993
The Banyan began twelve years back as a humanistic response to restore hope and dignity to homeless women with mental illness. Abused and stripped of their identities; their existence is often obscured and invisible to a larger part of society. Our journey has been an endeavour to ensure for these women the right to rescue, the right to care and the right to a life of freedom and dignity in society.
This movement began in 1993 out of a small three bedroom rented apartment that sheltered and cared for women rescued from the streets of Chennai. The apartment was the beginning of what is now ‘Adaikalam’, Banyan’s transit home that currently houses over 320 women in our three storey facility in Mogappair. 1994 saw The Banyan’s first rehabilitation, and since then, there has been no looking back. To date over 1500 women have passed the doors of the Banyan and more than 850 have regained their lives by tracing lost steps back to their families and communities.
Our journey has seen us through many ups and downs; through many moments of inspiration and also despair. The spirit of hope and passion has kept this movement alive, and we have fought to give a new lease of life to the many people who come in touch with us. In the year 2000, the Banyan witnessed the establishment of Lok Adalat – an innovation that humanized the process of legally committing a homeless person to The Banyan.
We have in the last decade revolutionized mental health care by caring for one of the most marginalized sections of society; by establishing scientific and humane care systems in mental health care and by facilitating people who have been restored to health to make choices about their future life and restoring them back to communities.
The scope of our journey has expanded tremendously in the past year, with our experience and understanding of the sector lending fresh flavour to our work. Our thrust is on increasing stakeholders in Mental Health Care for homeless persons through transfer of our experience through partnerships with Government, Police and NGOs.
The winter of 2005 saw us venture into partnerships and active advocacy with the launch of the Mental Health Helpline Dial 100 in a partnership agreement with the Chennai City Police and the Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health, GoTN. We have now taken our first steps towards transferring our experience to the state and deinstitutionalizing the state mental health facility. By 2005 summer with the launch of the Resource Center we have actively started working on increasing stakeholders in the sector by enabling other organizations and individuals to take on the role of the Banyan. We have also started work on prevention of homelessness through our Community Mental Health Project.
The essence of our work, however, lies in the freedom and choice to a better life that many of our clients make. Our greatest joy lies in the fact that many women who have recovered at the Banyan are taking steps towards reclaiming their identities and are voicing their rights. The December of 2005 saw representatives of our resident support group take on the campaign for people with mental health issues and address the media with their rights and issues. Events like these keep The Banyan dream, of enabling every person with mental illness on the streets to take charge of life and look towards a new dawn, alive.
The Banyan (www.thebanyan.org) is an organization providing care and rehabilitative services for homeless persons with mental illness since 1993. In these last thirteen years we have rescued over 1500 people from the streets, helped them recover and enabled over 900 to reach back to their families. Additionally we have supported community based integration of women through employment and provide outreach services aimed at prevention.
Over the last one year The Banyan ahs grown from a service delivery organization to an initiative that networks closely with the government, inducing changes in the public mental health delivery system and networks with close to 70 organization s with 6 of them replicating The Banyan model of care. Our socio medical strategy for overcoming the problem of homelessness and mental illness has been recommended by prominent people from NIMHANS and the WHO as model that can be replicated for larger success.
We are looking for dynamic and committed people for the following vacancies:
Coordinator - Resource Center
- initiating and sustaining training partnerships for stakeholder increase in the sector
- initiating and executing training programmes (internal and external)
- facilitating research in the sector (internal or through partnerships)
- coordinating participation of the banyan in conferences and networks
- executing awareness initiatives
- work with different projects of the banyan on advocacy component
Coordinator - Events and Donor relations
- innovate and execute events/ large scale fund raisers
- expand donor base of the banyan
- build an effective PR with Corporates / Govt. departments / Funding organizations
- create and implement an MIS system for tracking effectiveness of fund raising strategies and maximize returns from fund raising
- generate a corpus that can ensure sustainability for recurring expenses in a 10 year time frame
All positions are based at Chennai. Salary and other benefits will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. Our package is at par with the average in the sector.
Those interested in applying can mail their CVs at mathew@thebanyan.org.
The Banyan since 1993
The Banyan began twelve years back as a humanistic response to restore hope and dignity to homeless women with mental illness. Abused and stripped of their identities; their existence is often obscured and invisible to a larger part of society. Our journey has been an endeavour to ensure for these women the right to rescue, the right to care and the right to a life of freedom and dignity in society.
This movement began in 1993 out of a small three bedroom rented apartment that sheltered and cared for women rescued from the streets of Chennai. The apartment was the beginning of what is now ‘Adaikalam’, Banyan’s transit home that currently houses over 320 women in our three storey facility in Mogappair. 1994 saw The Banyan’s first rehabilitation, and since then, there has been no looking back. To date over 1500 women have passed the doors of the Banyan and more than 850 have regained their lives by tracing lost steps back to their families and communities.
Our journey has seen us through many ups and downs; through many moments of inspiration and also despair. The spirit of hope and passion has kept this movement alive, and we have fought to give a new lease of life to the many people who come in touch with us. In the year 2000, the Banyan witnessed the establishment of Lok Adalat – an innovation that humanized the process of legally committing a homeless person to The Banyan.
We have in the last decade revolutionized mental health care by caring for one of the most marginalized sections of society; by establishing scientific and humane care systems in mental health care and by facilitating people who have been restored to health to make choices about their future life and restoring them back to communities.
The scope of our journey has expanded tremendously in the past year, with our experience and understanding of the sector lending fresh flavour to our work. Our thrust is on increasing stakeholders in Mental Health Care for homeless persons through transfer of our experience through partnerships with Government, Police and NGOs.
The winter of 2005 saw us venture into partnerships and active advocacy with the launch of the Mental Health Helpline Dial 100 in a partnership agreement with the Chennai City Police and the Institute of Mental Health, Department of Health, GoTN. We have now taken our first steps towards transferring our experience to the state and deinstitutionalizing the state mental health facility. By 2005 summer with the launch of the Resource Center we have actively started working on increasing stakeholders in the sector by enabling other organizations and individuals to take on the role of the Banyan. We have also started work on prevention of homelessness through our Community Mental Health Project.
The essence of our work, however, lies in the freedom and choice to a better life that many of our clients make. Our greatest joy lies in the fact that many women who have recovered at the Banyan are taking steps towards reclaiming their identities and are voicing their rights. The December of 2005 saw representatives of our resident support group take on the campaign for people with mental health issues and address the media with their rights and issues. Events like these keep The Banyan dream, of enabling every person with mental illness on the streets to take charge of life and look towards a new dawn, alive.
The Banyan (www.thebanyan.org) is an organization providing care and rehabilitative services for homeless persons with mental illness since 1993. In these last thirteen years we have rescued over 1500 people from the streets, helped them recover and enabled over 900 to reach back to their families. Additionally we have supported community based integration of women through employment and provide outreach services aimed at prevention.
Over the last one year The Banyan ahs grown from a service delivery organization to an initiative that networks closely with the government, inducing changes in the public mental health delivery system and networks with close to 70 organization s with 6 of them replicating The Banyan model of care. Our socio medical strategy for overcoming the problem of homelessness and mental illness has been recommended by prominent people from NIMHANS and the WHO as model that can be replicated for larger success.
We are looking for dynamic and committed people for the following vacancies:
Coordinator - Resource Center
- initiating and sustaining training partnerships for stakeholder increase in the sector
- initiating and executing training programmes (internal and external)
- facilitating research in the sector (internal or through partnerships)
- coordinating participation of the banyan in conferences and networks
- executing awareness initiatives
- work with different projects of the banyan on advocacy component
Coordinator - Events and Donor relations
- innovate and execute events/ large scale fund raisers
- expand donor base of the banyan
- build an effective PR with Corporates / Govt. departments / Funding organizations
- create and implement an MIS system for tracking effectiveness of fund raising strategies and maximize returns from fund raising
- generate a corpus that can ensure sustainability for recurring expenses in a 10 year time frame
All positions are based at Chennai. Salary and other benefits will be commensurate with experience and qualifications. Our package is at par with the average in the sector.
Those interested in applying can mail their CVs at mathew@thebanyan.org.