Healing children and youth in Sri Lanka

Introduction

With the continuing challenges brought upon by COVOD-19 and ensuing economic turmoil in Sri Lanka, Shanthi Maargam forged ahead nonetheless and endeavored to deliver its services to the targeted disadvantaged communities. Even though, working at the ground level has been challenging we were able to keep our Youth Center opened to stay connected with the children and youth of our target communities through various activities and programs both online and physically together with uninterrupted free hotline, first aid and psychological counseling in Sinhala, Tamil and English counseling services.

End of the year 2021

2021 was a very challenging for Shanthi Maargam in terms of conducting activities at the center for children and youth, reaching the target communities and the providing in-person counseling services. However, we could successfully change the mode of delivery of our services and the activities during the period of lockdowns and travel restrictions. At December, we held a price giving and digital devices distribution program at the center. Prices and certificates were distributed for the winners and the participants of our online art competition and PEACE program which was funded by USAID. The donated digital devices such as mobile phones, tabs and laptops were distributed for the students in Grade 10 and 11 in their schools. Children, youth and parents also attended this moment. Parents were shared their thoughts about the activities and services we provide for their children.

Beginning of year 2022

Shanthi Maargam reopened on January. The team honored the New Year with the lightening of the oil lamp and enjoying the Sri Lankan foods. The day followed with an immersive 2-day gender training conducted by our founder and executive director, Kamani Jinadasa. The training was very interactive with discussions, reflections, role plays and presentations. The training enabled immense learning on the prevalence, impact, importance as well as the mechanism and frameworks in place for Gender Based Violence work.

Promoting wellbeing amongst children and youth through reading, movies, sports, art and mindfulness

The regular activities with children and youth were temporary hold since the situation of the country. However, we commenced a series of activities in January to engage the children and youth of our target communities. We initiated a movie circle as well as a reading circle with them. Each movie screening and reading circle followed with a discussion on what the children and youth had learnt about life, morals, and emotions.

These activities were not only fun and engaging but left the children with valuable life lessons and insight to tackle their everyday challenges. A game of cricket was also played with our Community Centre Coordinator instilling the importance of teamwork and communication. As a means of encouraging a healthy expression of emotions, an art therapy and mindfulness session was also organized by one of our Counsellors. The mindfulness practice also allowed children to practice developing a calm mind and learn an important skill to help tackle distressing emotions and events.

Donation of the Interactive Smart Board by E-Wis

A new chapter with advanced technological chapter began in Shanthi Maargam. E-Wis, one of the companies in Sri Lanka which pioneered to bring world class personal computers to the country donated a Interactive Smart Board to Shanthi Maargam. This board is mostly using to engage children and youth in a more interactive way. The Chief Executive Officer of E-Wis and his staff attended the event to handover the smart board at the center. Also, one of the senior officers provided training to our team members about the smart board in the same day.

PATHS to Change

We commenced the PATHS to Change program sessions with 15 children and youth of 12-17 age at the center. This program has been successfully adapted and implemented with UNICEF Sri Lanka in 2018-2019, with the main objective of creating positive and wide development in adolescents and youth. The introduction session and the first and second units of the first construct, namely, Bonding have been implemented. In the first construct it aims to establish a sound relationship between instructors and participants and among participants to engage active participation. There are eight constructs in the curriculum and the sessions will go until June.

Empowering girls to respond to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and facilitating supportive and safer environments in urban, low income settings in Sri Lanka

With the funding of Asia Foundation, Shanthi Maargam works towards strengthening the skills and awareness among female youth on prevention and response to Gender Based Violence. The project team arranged a meeting with the community and stakeholders to introduce the program to update them about the project and gain access to the office space. Following which, the chosen youth women leaders were met. First meeting with the girls included introducing each other and their interests. The community meeting was successful as the youth group was enthusiastic about meeting weekly on Saturdays. Flyers were also shared amongst the community to increase visibility and create awareness about Shanthi Maargam and our services.

We also focused on implementing activities planned for the girls and children in the target community. Accordingly, emotional wellbeing sessions were implemented. We started with our first module on understanding emotions which was held in two meetings on 8th January and 15th January 2022. The sessions were conducted through discussions and stories. Both sessions were very interactive and all the girls actively participated during the sessions. Further, we decided to begin Mathematics and English tuition classes for children (Grade 3 to 10) in the community. For which, we visited the parents on January 2022, to inform about the classes and collect demographics of children who were interested to join the classes.

To orient children in the community for weekly subject classes, we held an introductory session through art, in which the children were asked to introduce themselves and draw what they wish to have in 2022.

Free counseling service

During this time in which a dialogue on mental health issues is much needed, the services offered by Shanthi Maargam in uplifting the mental health of children and youth. Our hotline is open 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 counseling team could manage 338 hotline calls, 121 tele-counselling sessions through hotline, 167 of 1-on-1 online counseling sessions, 34 new clients from December, 2021 to February, 2022.  

Invitation to support a large local conglomerate on COVID-19 related mental health issues

In collaboration with Yellow Dot, Shanthi Maargam worked towards creating online support groups to provide queer youth with the resources, tools and knowledge to enhance their mental wellbeing. This is a safe, inclusive and non-judgmental platform for queer youth to share their lived experiences and gain support and advice from one another including qualified counsellors. A special curriculum that is specific to challenges faced by queer youth was currently developed based on the insights received through a comprehensive survey as well as focus group discussions. We will invite youth from the queer community to also share their insights into the validity and sensitivity of the manual.

Offering counseling services to employees of private sector

As a means of ensuring ample resources are available to meet the growing demand for our hotline services, we recruited an additional 6 hotline counsellors. Mandatory weekly supervision and trainings are also scheduled to support the new counsellors in an ongoing and structured manner. Currently our hotline services offered to all employees of a selected private company free of charge in all three languages. In December, we provided counselling to 9 employees through tele-counseling and / or online counseling. In January we received 28 hotline calls, 17 new clients, and 12 tele-counseling sessions while we received 62 hotline calls, 19 new clients, and 14 tele-counseling sessions.