SCHOOL EDUCATION PROGRAMS, YET ANOTHER INITIATION OF THE MINDS FOUNDATION

The MINDS began working with Live, Love, Laugh collaboration in the year 2016, for school programming. We have been putting together and editing English and Gujarati power point presentations geared towards both primary and secondary school children. In these presentations MINDS staff and GROW interns present specifically on the themes stigma and treatments surrounding anxiety, stress, and depression.

Anxiety, stress, and depression are relevant to school children due to pressures of school work, hormonal changes, and expectations of overachievement. 6-7% (70 million) of India’s population suffers from mental health concerns, and India has the highest rate of youth suicides. These are facts that cannot be ignored, and that is why MINDS aims to present to as many urban and rural Gujarati schools as possible.

MINDS initially went to three urban, English schools to ask permission from their principals to give presentations. The presentations usually last around 45 minutes, and we made them both interactive and visually stimulating for the children. We also gave pre and post assessments to gage the success of the program and the information gained by the school children. Two of the three schools were extremely receptive to our request. They understood our mission and the need to present this important information. We successfully also delivered our presentation in five other rural, Gujarati primary and secondary schools in the Waghodiya Taluka.

Like the urban schools, we have been scheduling the rural school programs too in order to have the spread of information as far as possible.