The Banyan Chennai

Vocational therapy in the form of block printing, hotel housekeeping and beautification courses are converted into viable employment avenues.

The Adaikalam (meaning ‘home’ in Tamil) is a care and rehabilitation centre for women. Here they get medical and psychiatric treatment along with occupational therapy like games and chores.

Women, old and young, from myriad backgrounds, sing, dance and play together, forming new relationships to replace the ones they have lost. The organisation’s commitment to their welfare continues post treatment; it provides a lifelong supply of medication, and conducts regular progress checks through its out patient clinic.

The NGO even provides a Legal Aid Clinic to smoothen their return into mainstream society. At times, some women are rejected by their families even after recovery; such women continue to reside at the facilities, supporting themselves through work. The Banyan Village, in the serene countryside of Kovalam, is a long-stay facility that operates along the same lines as Adaikalam.

The supportive environment encourages residents to form self-help groups like Vizhuthugal, which translates into ‘branches of the banyan’. The group recently set up pickling, block printing and stitching units with a bank loan. It has also established Spice Route, a café and store that retails items made during vocational therapy. 

In 2007, The Banyan’s Health Centre & Protected Community was launched by former President APJ Abdul Kalam. The Community Mental Health Project based in Kovalam focuses on providing medical facilities and training to people from withinthe community to identify and assist people with mental illnesses; both projects try to ensure that these people are cared for by their communities, and are not abandoned due to a lack of understanding.

In the course of its growth, the organisation has advocated that psychological illness is not the problem of the individual alone, but is a result of social interaction. It has successfully generated greater accountability and participation from the community and the administration through awareness campaigns, partnerships and fundraising. The government, corporates and individuals also help by making donations, volunteering, sponsoring meals, and patronising events like the NGO’s annual cultural festival Basant Utsav.

The success of The Banyan model has inspired other NGOs like Ashadeep in Assam and Karuna Trust in Karnataka to replicate it through training partnerships.  

In 2007, The Banyan won the Aram Award of Shriram Ilakkiya Kazhagam, a literary wing of Shriram Group, and in 2008, the Stri Shakti Puraskar, a Government of India award. It was also among the regional finalists for the India NGO Awards 2007.

On a wider scale, The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) helps transmit this model and develop talent in the field of social work, thereby bridging the gap between knowledge and action.