By Papri Sri Raman, IANS
Chennai : Asia’s largest marathon, the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2008 to be held Jan 20, will have a city-based NGO team and some film stars running for the mentally challenged with the message – “Mental illness can be cured”.
The Banyan, a non-governmental organisation devoted to the mentally challenged, will field a team that will include south Indian film stars Revathy Menon, Madhavan, Khushboo and Rohini and Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi.
One of the runners in the team will be Thiruselvi from Gudalur in Tamil Nadu. Not long ago she suffered from the bipolar affective mental illness and the symptoms became acute after she gave birth to her son.
Her family was not able to extend sufficient medical support and one day, she wandered away from her home with the baby. She arrived in Chennai and loitered on the streets with the child, begging and living off refuse, until the police found her and handed her over to The Banyan.
Her son was put in a special home and she was provided with medical help. Today, Thiruselvi has not only recovered and is able to cope with her life but also leads a self-help group of the mentally challenged and a tailoring unit.
At the Mumbai marathon, she will be taking her life’s story on to a public platform, seeking support for The Banyan’s activities.
Last year, Nachiket Mor of the ICICI Bank raised Rs.12.2 million ($300,000) towards The Banyan’s corpus.
This year, The Banyan will be highlighting a message of equity and inclusion for the mentally ill and marginalized while raising funds to meet the Rs.700,000 deficit it faces every month in running its eight projects and providing shelter for 360 women battling mental illness.
Real Image Media Technologies, Lifeline Hospitals and Jeppiar Engineering College are currently supporting The Banyan.
Lifeline Hospital chairman J.S. Rajkumar says, as many as “one percent of India’s population is severely mentally challenged and almost 15 percent suffer lesser forms of mental illnesses”.
“You need a huge leap of faith to reach out to them,” he adds.
“The Banyan has reached out to the marginalized mentally challenged for 14 long years and succeeded in rehabilitating 1,200 of them with their families, across India,” says Vandana Gopikumar, The Banyan’s founder trustee.
The organisation has rescued and rehabilitated at least 1,800 women wandering the streets of Chennai aimlessly.
The Banyan can be contacted at 044-43532324.