Sangath is at the cross roads. We complete a decade of our existence as an NGO in May 2006 and we are proud of Sangath’s excellent track record. This is also a good time to take stock, and to do an analysis of what trends emerge from our past experiences and to plan for our future.
The process was started in July 2005 and is still ongoing. We first paid attention to our administration and finance, putting in place a number of checks and balances. We were relieved that the majority of our child development staff remained with Sangath, to obtain the approval of our external auditors for the accounts of 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, the renewal of our recognition under the Foreign Currency Regulation Act, the continued support from many of our donors leading to new projects, our ability to recruit highly skilled professionals, and several invitations to train and carry out new programs; these were all signs of the strength and vitality of Sangath. A good degree of streamlining has been achieved this past year but there remain gaps that we must address with regards to human resource policies, clarifying our long-term vision, and identifying and nurturing Sangath’s future leaders.
What has emerged so far is clear. Sangath is the most credible mental health NGO in Goa and has built up a commendable reputation in Goa, nationally and internationally through the work it has done. Sangath focuses on mental health across the life span and strongly believes in working in partnership with community agencies, especially schools, primary health centres and other NGOs. We have instituted rigorous and transparent mechanisms to ensure financial accountability.
To now gaze into the crystal ball-- what do we see for Sangath? We have worked hard towards integrating our mental health services for different age groups, to strengthen our role in promoting community health in Goa, and ensuring that our research and clinical work complement one another. We are pleased that our new adult mental health services have now begun and are now investing in rebuilding our child development and mental health services. To this end, Sangath will recruit a new Director for its Clinical Program to steer our clinical work. Several major areas of work are already funded to continue in the years ahead-notably, our work in schools to mainstream inclusive education for children with learning disabilities (the Let Everyone Learn project), our work in primary health centres to integrate care forpeople with depressive and anxiety disorders (the Manas Project), and our work to promote the health of young people through community interventions (the Yuva Mitr project). Other exciting areas of work also call for our expertise. From May 2006, we will partner with Positive People, Goa’s leading HIV/AIDS NGO, to strengthen the mental health component of a community based program to improve the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS and their caregivers. We have entered into collaboration with the prestigious National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences to initiate a new research program in the community (in Goa and Bangalore) on developmental disabilities in young children.
Sangath has now inaugurated its first permanent centre, the new south Goa centre in Raia. As a result, we have now shifted our registered address to this centre. We need to continue to pay attention to streamlining the management and governance policies and have asked for advice from NGO experts like Murray Culshaw from Bangalore, leaders of other well-known NGOs (such as Yuva, Cehat and Saarthak), and the Goa University to help us in this process. What has emerged is that Sangath is a vibrant NGO which must continue to strengthen its clinical and training activities and that our research work must complement this and that everything we do must be evaluated and monitored regularly. The Managing Committee has planned a vision building workshop later this year for the senior staff and the Committee to plan a road-map for our future work over the next decade.
Finally, an important immediate goal is to find a permanent home for our North Goa centre. We hope to do so soon, and look forwards to the support of our well-wishers to attain this goal so that we can consolidate our work to fulfil our broad vision to promote mental health in our community. Health and happiness and harmony should be the keywords for a great future.