“MOGGU” ( Mental Health of Girls Growing Up)
Let the Flower Buds Blossom- Stories on well being for young women, Authors- Prabha S. Chandra and Veena Satyanarayana.
Moggu’s work highlights the agency of women and the potential of healing through personal narratives by providing the space for women to articulate their unique experiences from different contexts and worlds. –Shekhar Sheshadri
This set of stories has evolved as part of the MOGGU (Mental Health Among Girls Growing Up) project funded by Department of Health Research (DHR) at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). In Kannada, the word moggu means ‘flower bud’. The project was aimed at identifying the mental health needs of young women, who live in low income environments such as urban slums, and assessing the feasibility of various interventions in this group. The book has been written in the form of stories which are set in such an urban slum and aims at improving the mental health literacy among these young women who often live in very difficult circumstances and challenging situations.
The young women we interviewed are the ones who asked us to write a book. They wanted more information on mental health and also wanted to use self-help techniques for managing their own emotional and mental health issues and those of their peers. These young women have been involved in every stage of this book. They suggested the themes for the stories, whetted each story for language, length, translations, and also gave ideas for the title and illustrations. The stories in this book encourage self help and peer support. Each story handles a particular theme and tries to weave in some solutions. They are in the form of personal narratives, letters and diary notes and the language has been kept simple to suit low literacy situations.
The MOGGU team hopes that young women living in vulnerable and low income environments will benefit from this book. While the book mainly serves as a means of self help, it can also be used by teachers or any other facilitator to start a discussion on mental health issues with this group. We have also added a note for facilitators and parents at the end of the book.
The intense desire of these young women to help themselves at any cost despite living in very difficult circumstances and their thirst for knowledge on mental health is the real story behind these stories! Please e mail us at nimhans.wellbeing@gmail.com, for soft or hard copies of the book. It is available in English and Kannada and we welcome its translation into other languages.Prabha S. Chandra
"MOGGU' was released by Ms. Kavita Lankesh, film maker and Dr. Shoba Srinath, Dean, Behavioral Sciences on February 1st 2014, in NIMHANS.
Click Here to Download Moggu Executive summary
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