A Safe Place

Jit Bahadur’s brow glistens with sweat. Sickle in hand, he points at the pile of cut wild grass at his feet. He then gestures toward the nearby cattle shed, and, smiling broadly, makes smacking noises with his mouth. Without words, he has made himself clear. He gathers up an armful of the fodder and trods over to feed the cows and water buffalo.

This scene transpires on the rural hillside where The New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center is home for Jit and eight other residents, all of whom have a history of mental illness. Having received treatment at the mission hospital in the nearby town of Tansen, these patients - like so many suffering from mental illness in Nepal - had nowhere to go.

“There is a great need for a safe place to house patients in stable recovery, who do not need to be hospitalized but who have no home to go to when they are discharged,” says the project founder, a long-time Christian leader and staff member at the hospital. “Many of them had been living on the street. We can’t just send them back there.”

Established in 2013, the New Life Center responds to this need. Safe shelter, food, and mental health services are not all that is offered. Residents are also given the chance to work. For some this means doing chores around the group home, and for others - like Jit - it means helping at the small farm on the premises. These opportunities promote a sense of dignity, self-reliance and social inclusion, something most of these individuals have never experienced before.

As the afternoon sun shines down on him, Jit notices the others sitting on the porch. It’s break time. Smiling again, he joins them for a cup of tea.

The New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center is a project of Aviyan Nepal, based in Tansen. DDHCFN has provided one-time grants for specific activities carried out by the Center, particularly relating to the use of farming and animal husbandry as a way to engage and benefit the residents - nutritionally, economically, and socially.