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The
planters of The Banyan
Battered, bruised, brutally abused, both physically and sexually,
ignored by everybody, eating out of garbage bins and with
no place to call home. This was the situation of Chennai’s
homeless women with mental illness even just a decade ago.
They were an invisible minority, and would have stayed invisible
had it not been for two young women who put them firmly back
on Chennai’s social agenda.
Vandana Gopikumar, then still a Master’s student of
Social Work, came across a half-naked, mentally ill homeless
woman in absolute distress on the road in front of her college.
Nobody else seemed even to notice her. With the help of a
close friend, Vaishnavi Jayakumar, she tried to find shelter
for the woman. Mental health institutions and NGOs were reluctant
to admit the woman in desperate need of medical and psychiatric
attention. Several more such encounters over the next few
months left the idealistic duo disillusioned and the idea
was born that they should do something about the problem themselves.
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The girls started
growing the seeds of The Banyan in 1993, after Vandana
finished her Master’s in Medical and Psychiatric
Social Work and Vaishnavi dropped out of her MBA to
join her. They were 22 then. The Banyan started off
as a shelter and transit home for homeless women for
mental illness who had wandered from their homes across
the country and ended up in the streets of Chennai.
One of the duo’s core beliefs was that the women
needed to receive timely treatment and to be rehabilitated
in mainstream society. Fifteen years later, after reaching
out to over 1500 women, and successfully rehabilitating
more than 800, their beliefs have been vindicated. |
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Growing up
With little more than the firm belief that nothing is impossible
and that every human being on this planet is entitled to a
life of dignity, The Banyan was registered as a Trust in 1993.
Adaikalam (Tamil for ‘home’), a rented three-bedroom
building, became a care and rehabilitation centre. Eventually
over 100 women would call Adaikalam home, finding it a safe,
comforting place where their wounds would be healed. Days
of no money and hungry mouths to feed were not uncommon. As
desperate as was the struggle was the importance of the work.
1994 saw The Banyan’s first rehabilitation, the beginning
of more happy reunions and fairy tale endings than anyone
could ever imagine.
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Growing up
With little more than the firm belief that nothing is impossible
and that every human being on this planet is entitled to a
life of dignity, The Banyan was registered as a Trust in 1993.
Adaikalam (Tamil for ‘home’), a rented three-bedroom
building, became a care and rehabilitation centre. Eventually
over 100 women would call Adaikalam home, finding it a safe,
comforting place where their wounds would be healed. Days
of no money and hungry mouths to feed were not uncommon. As
desperate as was the struggle was the importance of the work.
1994 saw The Banyan’s first rehabilitation, the beginning
of more happy reunions and fairy tale endings than anyone
could ever imagine.
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