Footsteps to Freedom: Walking cross country for mental health

Living in a country which has its belief system deeply rooted to deity worship, most of our older generation would still assign blame on an angered spirit; if a person becomes mentally ill. Not that the same can be easily disregarded, but there are times when one could downward spiral due to trauma and we are unaware about the symptoms of such mental disorders.

Understanding the need of the hour, Nivendra Uduman and Hansini Gunasekara, two enthusiastic professionals, will embark on a journey on 18 August from Dondra to Point Pedro to raise awareness about the importance of mental health among the rural communities between these points.

Their intentions are to connect deeply with people along the way, and to empower individuals and communities to break free from stigma and shame surrounding mental health problems.

The walk will be done in six phases; Dondra to Ratnapura, Ratnapura to Kandy, Kandy to Dambulla, Dambulla to Vauniya, Vavuniya to Kilinochchi, and the final stretch from Kilinochchi to Point Pedro. The duo will conduct awareness sessions in pre-determined locations such as hospitals and Army camps and if they get permission in community centres in the outskirts.

“Our aim is to reach out to the grassroots of communities and raise awareness about mental disorders, direct the people to the nearest institutions that are equipped with therapists and break the stigma that is around mental illnesses and affected individuals,” Nivendra clarified.

He further explained that there is a lot of red tape from the government and that they are still working on getting the necessary permits to conduct awareness sessions in the rural areas. “We would love to reach out to schools, but again the authorities have made it difficult to us to conduct our awareness sessions in schools,” he noted.

Mental health is everybody’s responsibility and breaking the stigma around it will not be an easy task as Nivendra and Hansini has identified few barriers along the way on their planning stage. 

“As a woman I know there is also gender stereotyping when it comes to physical endurances in activities such as this. While we are trying to break stigma around mental disorders, I am taking this opportunity to change the perceptions on the physical and mental strength of women in Sri Lanka,” Hansini reiterated.

Nivendra and Hansini strongly believe that freedom comes from empowerment, so their passion is to build strong communities, and they hope for a resilient Sri Lanka. They are very grateful to their families for their constant encouragement, financial support and motivating them to reach their goals from the time they started drawing up the initial sketches for this walk. 

This walk will also be in aid of Samutthana, an organisation involved in mental health work in Sri Lanka, to deliver mental health and psycho-social services to children and young people affected by the recent floods and landslides that devastated Sri Lanka.

Samuthana, celebrating their 10th anniversary, this year will be staging a concert under the theme of ‘All we need is love’ on 16 August at the Lionel Wendt. The show will mark the launch of ‘Footsteps to Freedom’ and will be the official fundraising event towards a worthy cause.

For more information on how you could assist them in their walk visit www.facebook.com/mentalhealthsrilanka.