The Hindu : Many organisations extend support to The Banyan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 31, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Many organisations extend support to The Banyan

By Our Staff Reporter

Chennai AUG. 30. "You do good. It is like depositing in the bank- it comes back".

When The Banyan, an NGO dedicated to the destitute mentally ill women, completed a decade of reaching out, it did reap the interest from a host of organisations and individuals, who pledged their support during the anniversary celebrations on Saturday.

The Rotary District Governor, Sv.Rm.Ramanathan who came up with the quote, announced that Rotary clubs all over India would work in association with The Banyan "to take care of every patient who is returned back". "Every local Rotary Club in 30 districts across the country will take care, not just monetarily, but also monitor if the medicines are being taken on time", he added.

Tejdeep Kaur Menon, I.G (Police), Andhra Pradesh, promised to take care of 50 Banyan residents who have now gone back to Andhra Pradesh, through the police-family network. The Sundaram Medical Foundation Chief of Medical Staff, Arjun Rajagopal assured that the Foundation would set up a clinic in The Banyan premises.

The IIT Director, M.S. Ananth said that the NSS students would work closely with the home for the mentally ill and create a web site for the organisation. Actress-director Revathy Menon announced that a feature-film on mental illness, to be based on the book `Out of Mind, Out of Sight' was on the cards.

The Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Ram said that the NGO believed in three principles that any social responsible media stood for— justice, humaneness and social good.

The NGO that had rehabilitated over 550 women and reunited them with family, also received donations and renewed monthly monetary commitments from a number of people including trustee of The Banyan, M.A.Vellodi, activist, Gerard Fisher, the Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation Director Narayanan and the Zurich Financial Services Community Trust, UK. The speakers also lauded the efforts of The Banyan's founders Vaishnavi Jayakumar and Vandana Gopikumar.

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Many organisations extend support to The Banyan