Career related questions are one of the biggest things on youth’s minds, affecting their mental health. This is something we have observed over our years of community based counseling. While it sounds technical and easy enough (“do what interests you” being the usual refrain which is very true but not enough), it literally keeps youth awake at night. Connected as it is with our talents, skills , self image, financial situation and needs, life plans as well as collective expectations – it is a deeply personal, emotional issue.
On 13th December, we addressed some of these topics while distributing scholarships to youth from Dombivli to Badlapur. There were many activities to really understand self, how we communicate, how we resolve conflicts in relationships, how we dream, discover and deliver that dream, that this is a constant process and not one to be answered at once. It was an emotional day with youth opening up about deep seated self doubts.
Anubhuti provides scholarships as one form of mental health support to youth, and such counselling is done as part of the process.
This was a collective session with youth of various backgrounds. Some of them were our Kolegaon youth, others were scholarship applicants specially invited from NT-DNT girls, while some others were our ‘Mental Health Story competition’ finalists.
