‘Footsteps to Freedom II’: Reaching people who can’t reach us

By Fathima Riznaz Hafi

Two years ago, Counselling Psychologist and Psychotherapist Nivendra Uduman had launched ‘Footsteps to Freedom’, a 44-day walk across the country, with a team of volunteers, holding workshops along the route to educate residents on mental health.

During their journey from Dondra across the country to Point Pedro, the team conducted over 100 sessions on suicidal prevention, mental health, relationships, alcohol and substance abuse, etc. They held workshops at post offices, maternity clinics, hospitals, outside schools, elders’ homes, and special education centres, for a wide range of people. 

Recounting his experience Nivendra said, “I know for sure that I may have saved one life and that one life tells me that I’ve achieved the goal of my walk; that happened somewhere on that journey when I met a woman who was on the verge of taking her life. I was able to save her by just listening to her and she was able to share her story for the first time with someone who listened and understood. I referred her for treatment at a hospital. That was a turning point in the walk because I realised there was something larger than myself or my profession; this is about my country – and about mental health, which I’m passionate about.”

Footsteps to Freedom II

Maintaining that same spark, Nivendra will embark once again on a walk of this nature, by launching ‘Footsteps to Freedom II’ in April along with Ranil Thilakaratne and Sara Nazoor, who are also passionate about the cause, and are actively involved in suicide prevention and promoting mental health.

Ranil is Manager at the CCC line 1333 which offers free telephone counselling, while Sara is an undergraduate in psychology. Together they will embark on a 72-day walk, this time covering the coastline of Sri Lanka, conducting workshops along the way.

This walk is a collaboration between two organisations that are doing significant work around emotional well-being and suicide prevention: CCC line 1333, which is a telephone counselling service available toll-free, and Shanthi Maargam which is an organisation that works towards the emotional well-being of the young people of Sri Lanka. 

“We are hoping to walk around the entire coast of Sri Lanka, which will take around 72 days and again around 20 km per day; sometimes it may be longer and harder than other days. Suicide prevention is our main theme for this year; we will be focussing a lot on this area because we know that this is a significant problem in Sri Lanka. We have about 8-10 deaths everyday by suicide and we have over 100 attempts every day; these are just the recorded numbers; there are so many that go unrecorded, that you and I will never know about.

“We want to change that. We want to tell people that it’s okay to talk about your problems with someone and it’s okay to seek help. We want to shatter the stigma that exists around suicide; it is a very lonely journey for someone to go through. From experience in this profession we know that someone struggling with mental health problems often is stigmatised, isolated and ostracised by the community – not just in Colombo but all the different parts of the country.

“The second reason that we are passionate about this is because information does not go out to those areas that we are trying to reach through the walk. People don’t know that these services are available in Sri Lanka. They don’t know where to go to seek help. They don’t know how to look for the signs – what to look for to identify someone who has a mental health problem; if a family member or friend is on the verge of suicide they won’t know. We want to change that,” he said.

The walk will consist of a series of planned and unplanned awareness raising sessions that will be held in organisations and schools as well as tea shops, bus stands and smaller village community gatherings throughout the period of 72 days. The sessions will focus on how one can recognise warning signs of those at risk of suicide, they will be informed of helplines available, and actions an individual can take prior to seeking professional help. 

The material that will be given out during the walk will include significant and useful information on how people can recognise a mental health problem and support each other on a very basic level until professional help is sought. 

Nivendra says it is going to be a long, hot, difficult walk which the three of them have been training for – physically and emotionally – but are excited about because they are doing it for the country. He invites the public to join in to show their support, even if it’s just for a kilometre. The walk starts on 1 April at 6 a.m. from Mt. Lavinia.