Being part of Odisha Chapter of “Rapid Community Response to Covid-19 (RCRC) Coalition, CYSD in association with Gram Vikas, Harsha Trust and Shristi is currently implementing a common project in some select Blocks of Odisha. A study on “Monitoring Rural Lives during the Pandemic” was conducted by RCRC in July 2020. One of the key findings of the study revealed that there is a significant impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the mental state of affairs of the rural community mentioning 72 percent of the households surveyed have fear and anxiety, followed by 39 percent have come across irritation /anger and 15 percent sleeplessness. In this context, providing psycho-social support to the people in need, as one of the critical interventions, has been planned under this project.

To take the process forward, a three-day virtual orientation programme (1st Sept. to 3rd Sept.) on psycho-social support (of 8 hours’ duration in total) was organized for 32 Community Resource Persons (CRPs) and the Programme Coordinators of RCRC Odisha partners, facilitated by Ms. Sushree Mishra, a Senior Counselor on psycho-social. After training, the CRPs involved in this project, as ambassadors of mental wellness, have visited different families and initiated conversation on mental health, impact of Covid-19 pandemic and people’s experience during this phase.

The CRPs shared their experiences from the ground during the follow-up training programmes organized on 15th and 26th Sept. 2020. While there were dozens of cases the CRPs wanted to share and get further support, only three cases were discussed and supervised for the clarity and benefit of all the participants. The CRPs like Jemamani Mahanta, Hemalata Mahanta and Khirodini Mahanta volunteered to share their learning and experience.

Jemamani shared how there was little scary to start the dialogue on mental health. To her surprise, she told within 30 minutes, one after another all the family members joined her and shared their struggle. They were pleasantly surprised as someone paid a visit and asked about their well-being, as other villagers had ostracized them due to the corona positive case in their family. Sharing her experience, Jemamani told that she had tried to reach out to a family when she came to know they are in a difficult situation. Within no time the family members could openly express about the existing mental illness in the family and how they feel so clueless about it. “It’s an everyday stress, an everyday problem,” family members shared. While one of them was in tears, another was looking at the open sky with some hope.

Hemalata, while visiting a family, offered empathy and talked to them about the Citizen Support Center Helpline (8880592592) set up by CYSD. She discussed with the family members about the psychosocial support provided by the professionals through this programme. The family requested her to come back again and help them make a call to Helpline. They were more than thankful for the presence of Hemalata.

Khirodini, who herself has recovered from Corona, is no less than a warrior. She actually didn’t listen to others instruction for not visiting other villages. She was convinced to provide her valuable services to a family, which was recently under home quarantine.

While talking about Covid-19 impacts, many stories, many struggles, Khirodini just shared a girl’s case who was reported attempting suicide simply due to the sheer difficulty in everyday life. She patiently listened and showed them a video (End your Problem, not Life) on the same issue. The same girl thanked Khirodini and promised her not to harm her life again.

Being an eyewitness, Khirodini has been trying to make herself believe that she was one of the sufferers. Despite all these, she provided required support to the affected families for which she is trained. Many more such lived cases connected to psycho-social support will come through our CRPs, the ambassadors of mental wellness, in near future phase-wise.