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7/11, 5 months
later: A time to heal
At today’s
session, meet special guest Kittu, a four-year-old Labrador
Kavitha Iyer
Mumbai,
December 9:
FIVE months after
a series of bomb blasts aboard running trains changed their lives
forever, family members of those who died, injured victims and reporters
who witnessed the gruesome scenes soon after the blasts will meet at a
suburban club on Sunday morning. And, as they share their experiences,
their children and adolescents will meet the morning’s special guest—Kutti,
a four-year-old Labrador.
In a first for post-disaster support initiatives in India, an event organised jointly by the civic King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital, the Bombay Psychiatry Society (BPS) and others will introduce animal-assisted therapy to survivors of the 7/11 bomb blasts. Called Expressions, the event will have Pune-based Minal Lonkar-Kavishwar talking about how animals can help offer comfort and succour.
It was a chance meeting on social networking site Orkut that led to the inclusion of animal-assisted therapy in Sunday’s event, says Dr Shilpa Adarkar, secretary of BPS. “We had done some work post 7/11, including a helpline for victims and family members,” she says. “And we documented that work and created a community on Orkut.”
Lonkar-Kavishwar, whose Pune-based NGO Animal Angels also has a community on the site, contacted them and got talking. Soon, things fell in place and she was invited to join Sunday’s event, where she will address doctors, survivors and children, describing her work with volunteer-dogs and autistic children, mentally disabled children, physically disabled children and also her upcoming projects with cancer survivors.
“Animals speak a different language,” says the therapist, who runs the Animal Angels Therapy Centre in Pune’s Prasanna Autism Centre and works with disabled children from various schools at the Bal Kalyan Sanstha, Pune.
She says after Hurricane Katrina, therapy dogs worked even with despondent rescue workers. “Time spent with animals is comforting, an emotional experience,” says the 26-year-old who has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Mumbai’s SNDT University as well as a certificate from the Delta Society, an international group that offers a course in animal therapy along with the University of North Texas. “We can do the same here, provided the right structure is created.”
Adarkar says Expressions will especially try to draw children affected by 7/11 to articulate their emotions. “Nothing has been done for children,” she says. “People just tell them to be brave and that’s it.” She hopes the lone dog being invited to the event—Lonkar-Kavishwar is taking along Kutti, her senior-most therapy dog who she’s worked with for over three years at Thane’s Jidd School For The Mentally Disabled—will help the young victims express themselves. Also being organised for them is a drawing session, with colours and crayons to convey their thoughts through.
Animal assisted therapy works mostly with volunteer dogs especially trained by certified therapists. To know more or to undertake a course in animal therapy for your pet, visit www.animalangels.org.in or call Minal Lonkar-Kavishwar on 9325025250