(Image source: Facebook – Rehoboth Home for the Mentally challenged Women Destitutes)
Terms such as ’empathy’, ’empowerment’, and ‘transforming the world around us’, can well be associated with organisations such as Rehoboth, a Chennai-based NGO that works with homeless women who have mental illnesses. Through our telephone interaction with the founder, Ms. Zoraida Samuel, we bring to you their journey that began over two decades ago.
Reflecting back on how the organisation was born, Ms. Zoraida says that a combination of various events led to its launch. For a case study during her postgraduate days, she worked in a school with adolescent children who had mental illnesses. Unlike the younger kids, she noticed that the older children did not go back home for their summer vacations, since families, as a result of the complexities that arise when they reach their adolescent phase, often did not wish to bring them back home. In addition to this, something else that also deeply affected her during this time in life was when she witnessed on the road a person who had a mental illness steal fruits, being beaten by the police and members of the public. The impact that various such instances had on her shaped the trajectory of her life, giving rise to this organisation focusing on homelessness and mental health.
Two women were initially rescued from the streets and cared for in a rented space. However, it soon became clear that the need within the community was much higher. Ms. Zoraida thus left her job at another NGO and took this up on a full-time basis. More women were thereon rescued and housed in the land and building, which were received as donations. Fast forward to today, and over 320 homeless women who have mental illnesses or intellectual disability are cared for by Rehoboth. The women who are rescued from the streets, aged on average between 20 and 35, are, to start with, screened to understand their health condition, which is a crucial step since 9 out of 10 of them are abused in some form, with few women even being pregnant while being rescued.
This screening is then followed by the rehabilitation process, in which they are first provided with the required psychiatric drugs and allowed time to get accustomed to this medication. Subsequently, they are trained in rehabilitation activities such as sewing, embroidery, and other handicrafts. This is as important an intervention as basic necessities like medicine and food, as it helps keep their minds centred and provides them with a sense of purpose to use their skills to make products that are then sold. These activities, in addition to assisting with keeping them calm and alert, also help in recollecting information about their past, such as their names, addresses, and contact numbers, with the organisation hoping to use such data to reunite them with their families. However, 98% of the time, these women are not wanted back.
(Image source: Facebook – Rehoboth Home for the Mentally challenged Women Destitutes)
Such women who have been rehabilitated to the best possible level but not welcomed back at home, as well as those who do not possess the fine motor skills to be trained in these rehabilitative handicrafts, are housed at the organisation’s nature-oriented centre. Women here involve themselves in animal husbandry and allied activities that have great therapeutic value. This helps not just in a therapeutic sense but also allows for the NGO to continue to care for these women who have no place else to go, since if left unsupervised and fail to take their medication regularly, they pose the risk of a relapse and the risk of being abused.
Rehoboth also runs other projects, such as a thrift store, a subsidised palliative care unit, and two special schools, of which one is government-recognised. As for the special school project in particular, it was noticed that many of the rescued women come from poor families and are abandoned by their loved ones once their mothers pass away, and that these women, who otherwise have a good IQ, did not receive the needed special education training that deals with functioning skills like using the bathroom, often because they were unable to afford the same. Therefore, the special school project works with women and men across various age groups to help equip them with these functioning skills, along with providing them with other supporting services such as free transportation to the school. This special education training is undertaken with the hope of preventing them from ending up in the same helpless position as these women. Having gained the needed training and backed by family support, some students of this school work as assistants to mechanics and in bakeries.
Through various such projects, Rehoboth has been focusing on the present crisis in this area of homelessness and mental illness and is also helping to avert another crisis in the future. However, the NGO still continues to face many challenges, even today. The organisation consists of a team of more than 60 people who often stretch themselves to get all the work done. A lack of sufficient qualified personnel has been a major challenge, including the understaffing of its admin team like that of the need for help with developing proposals for more CSR funding. Additionally, though there is an existing physician, there is also a requirement for more general physicians, counsellors, psychotherapists, and volunteers. Other major challenges include space constraints for the growing number of women beneficiaries and a lack of funds, with their current bank balance being lower than what they spend on expenses for one month, says team Rehoboth.
Although affected by such challenges even after 20 years, the team says that seeing the women blossom and their individual personalities come to light compared to seeing them when they were on the streets, brings them immense joy. They add that what the NGO does cannot be termed work since they love creating an impact. Thus, the journey of Rehoboth and its founder is a story of how empathy can help empower hundreds of lives!
