A home for those shunned by society

The son of a well respected doctor of the area, Dinesh was a hyperactive and difficult youngster. His parents could not deal with his behaviour and found it easier to hide him away, even making him sleep under his bed to “discipline” him. One day, they tied Dinesh to a post in the middle of a paddy-field. Villagers found him and took him to Angoda. Dinesh has not spoken a word since.

Dinesh represents the millions of ‘silent sufferers’, those afflicted with mental illnesses in the world. This is how one of them describes their suffering.“I could see them trying to hold back their laughter, staring, pointing their fingers at me. Why? What was wrong with me? Why were they laughing? I started to run…it didn’t matter where to…I would run till they stopped laughing. But it didn’t stop. It was following me, wherever I ran.…there was no where to run…”

Now there is a place where those like Dinesh can turn to. ‘Freedom House’, founded by Sagarika Perera is home to 50 mentally handicapped patients, either convalescing or abandoned by their families. Sagarika, a strong believer in helping the ‘under-dog’ transformed her home into a halfway house for the mentally ill in 2003. “As there is no specific Ministry or authority to handle the area of mental health, this issue tends to get neglected. That was one of the main reasons I decided to start this home. I felt this segment of society was helpless and cruelly subject to total alienation through no fault of their own.”

“I got an insight into mental health when I volunteered at the Angoda Hospital sometime ago. I noticed that many of the inmates were brought back to hospital within a week of being sent home, as the atmosphere at home wasn’t conducive to their recovery” she explained.

Patients were ill treated or rejected by their own siblings, constantly badgered about their illness by their relations or harassed and humiliated by fellow employees, neighbours and others, she explained.“Everybody needs a little love to get by, even the mentally ill. They respond very well to love and affection. The main problem is that people are afraid of the unknown and thus discriminate based on their ignorance, instead of trying to overcome their fear by educating themselves and becoming more aware.” But, at times patients refuse to take their medication when they’re at home and tend to get aggressive with their care givers, so sometimes families have no choice but to give them over to someone else’s care, she adds.

Running Freedom House has not been easy. She suffered a broken wrist trying to break up a fight between two of her beloved puthas but remains steadfast to her cause. “It’s quite scary sometimes because many of my ‘extended family’ can be quite unpredictable at times but God has given me a lot of strength and courage to continue my work so I won’t turn back now,” she says.

Many of the people at ‘Freedom House’ can easily make a recovery, given the right medication, therapy and tender loving care, she feels. Some families visit regularly, but most residents have been either disowned, abandoned or even exploited by their families, she says.

She takes her charges who range from 15 to 62 years of age, to a weekly clinic at the Kiribathgoda Hospital for a check-up. Although the Government provides free medication and reduced electricity bills (entitlements of any approved charity), Sagarika receives no monetary help from the Government. Having had to make do with makeshift beds - tattered mattresses on planks balancing on some concrete blocks, ‘Freedom House’ is in dire need of basic facilities such as bedding and linen etc. They also need to expand their current living quarters and toilets. Even everyday requirements such as dry rations, clothes and basic medicines are scarce, she adds.

Their plight is perhaps best expressed by another inmate of ‘Freedom House *Kusum (40).“The few times I ventured out on the street, I could see them stop and stare. There goes the mad woman, I heard children shout. Parents huddled their children close and rushed away from me. “Don’t go near her, she’s mad…eyata pissu…But, the constant laughing, that was the worst. I just couldn’t take the laughter. There’s nothing wrong with me. I too laughed like you once. Don’t run away from me please. But, there was only hysterical laughter. Louder and louder and louder it grew…Stop it! There’s nothing wrong with me!”.