Healing the child within…

Arpan the NGO Global Excellence Award Winner 2015 in the category of Child Rights is an NGO; working hard to address the issue of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) in India. Based in Mumbai, Arpan is the one of the largest NGO in India in this specific area with over 50 social workers and counselors providing prevention and intervention services to children and adults.

Arpan has been conducting long-term psychotherapy for the last 5 years for more than 65 rescued minor girls living in Advait Foundation, a rehabilitation home. These children are largely from families that are vulnerable due to poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse etc. and have come from various parts of the country as well as neighbouring countries. The psychological problems faced by these children includes post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), dissociative symptom, depression, absence of emotional reactions, anxiety disorder, self-blame, helplessness and meaninglessness, nightmares, boundary issues, anger and rage control problems, suicidal and self-harm thoughts and attempts, inability to sustain adequate self-care and sleeping problems. Through sustained individual therapy and group sessions, girls have made remarkable journeys towards healing and self-actualization and have endorsed the therapy.

This book, ‘Rescue and Remedy: A Process Documentation of Psychotherapy with Children in Institutions’ is an outcome of documenting the process of this change and aims towards providing a model of psychotherapeutic intervention for working with children who have survived trauma and abuse.

Ms. Pooja Taparia, Founder & Chief Executive of Arpan exclaimed “The book provides a lot of hope that therapeutic support can become a powerful catalyst to healing and empowerment of children and will surely evolve as a model to help other organizations in the implementation of similar initiatives.” Pooja started her work on CSA in 2006 and has grown from a team of 3 to 50 professionals who runs various programs, workshops, teachings, trainings and counseling services to deal with CSA. Arpan has so far helped over 100,000 children and adults directly through its services and 300,000 individuals indirectly through trainings and advocacy. Arpan’s key project ‘Personal Safety Education Program (PSE)’ empowers children with skills, knowledge and attitude so that they can identify and seek help in unsafe situations. And similar program is run for teachers, parents and relevant stakeholders to help them prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.

Recently in March of 2015, Goldman Sachs made a donation to Arpan to help fund PSE. Sonjoy Chatterjee, Co-Head of Goldman Sachs India said, “Arpan does critical work in the very difficult area of child sexual abuse. The organization has a tremendous mandate of working to prevent child abuse and helping survivors heal. Through the publication Rescue & Remedy, their program will continue to give children an opportunity to realize their dreams and aspirations. Goldman Sachs is honored to support Arpan since 2011.”

Onir, well-known Director of National Award Winning Film, ‘I AM’ said, “Mental health of survivors of abuse needs attention; it is a space where not much has been done. Children need this support to regain their sense of dignity, self-respect and courage. Arpan has been doing amazing work in the last few years for awareness and support for Child sexual abuse survivors. This book will be another milestone.”

“The well-documented book having more than 160 pages is available in an e-book format on the Arpan website,” added Pooja.