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World mental Health day Celebration 2011

World Mental Health Day (Oct. 10) is a day for global health education, awareness, and advocacy. It was first celebrated in 1992 at the initiative of the
World Federation for Mental Health. This day each October, thousands of supporters come together to celebrate this annual awareness program.

In Sri Lanka this day is part of the health awareness week. We at Human Rights Office Kandy, understanding the effects of Mental Health in the healing
process of our survivor group celebrate this day for the first time with our survivors. The theme of the day is “No Health without Mental Health”

It was a half a day program held at St. Mary‟s Church hall, Ampitiya. The participants
of the celebration were: Our survivor group of families of disappeared, survivors of
torture rape, survivors of Human rights violations, and their family members. There
were also the members of the support group, the family counselors, the parishioners
of Ampitiya St. Mary‟s
church, friends and well-
wishers. There were around
100 participants for the
celebration.

The families of the disappeared in the first meeting of the year 2011 decided to produce a
magazine by themselves named as “Nadia” meaning River to share their experiences, to
develop their writing and reading skills, and thereby to enrich their live. In March on Women‟s Day the first issue was published and distributed. This
day the 2nd issue was printed and distributed among the survivors titled as “No Health without Mental Health”. A unique feature of the magazine is the
articles were written by the mental health professionals with a view of providing a
better information, knowledge and experience to our survivor groups. The
president of the families of the disappeared in her introduction briefed the
gathering on the vision goal and the objectives of the magazine.

Fr. Nandana the founder director

of the Human Rights Office
presented to the participants the
importance of the Mental Health in the healing process of the survivors.

The director of the Community mental Health Resource Center at his staff at
Katugastota was the guest speaker for the day. With the use of audio visuals
he shared his wealth of knowledge and experiences on “how to live a happy life” and the participants were enriched with his
presentation. He being a well knowable and experienced in his profession working for the mental
health in the Kandy district regardless of cast and creed said that it was his first experience to
participate in a meaningful mental health day celebration with a survivor group. „It is wonderful and
unique experience‟ he repeated again and again.

The local community of Ampitiya contributed to the occasion by producing dances, music and songs giving the participants
healing of mind, body and spirit, with relaxation and enjoyment. It was a
healing experience for the survivor group to be relived of the tension and
stress taste of raising their minds to a high level of thinking
and enjoying.

The day ended with a tone of joy and happiness.