Kaarvaan Crafts Foundation advocates for mental health awareness and support for rural population

Kaarvaan Crafts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that strives to create a world of cooperation and collaboration where men and women stand side by side as equals. Their local research has shown that after three months of grassroots community work more than 51 per cent of the women were able to improve the lives of their children.

As an organization that believes in improving the quality of life, during the Mental Health Awareness Week, Kaarvan highlighted the need for mental health facilities in rural Pakistan. Covid-19 has taken a huge toll on the nation’s mental health but those in rural regions have had no access to anyone or anything that can help ease their mental illnesses. Since last year Kaarvan has actively worked to raise awareness about the need to open up conversations surrounding mental health and to amplify the voices of sufferers from all walks of life.

In June 2020 Kaaravan initiated a series of weekly talks on their Facebook page, titled ‘Kaarvan Conversations’. From country experts to innovators to professionals these conversations have been a continuous effort to highlight issues that the planet is facing especially mental health.

Professionals from the field of psychiatrists, psychotherapists, maternal healthy founders and geneticists including; Farah Tiwana, Sana Ajmal, Mehreen Shahid and Dr Rabia Khan who have all worked in the field of mental health or female health in general came to speak from Kaarvan’s platform on the urgent need to assess the mental toll the pandemic is taking. They all stressed upon the urgency with which rural women in particular need access to help. A special episode with the poet and mental health advocate Zahra Hameed and her husband, Usman Raza Jamil (a lawyer by profession) was also conducted about the need to speak up about mental health.

With the third wave causing devastation and many parts of the country are back in some form of lockdown once again, Kaarvan offers ‘I Kept Walking’ a biography in Urdu and English of their artisan Kalsoom Tahira available on their website (www.kaarvan.com.pk).

This story is an example of what a woman in the rural area faces, her struggles, the toll it takes and what she must do to overcome. Tahira’s story is one of a million and yet it is not too different in terms of the struggle and hardships. Sadly, these women have never received the mental health support they need to heal as they continue to strive for a better life.

Originally published at https://pk.mashable.com on May 21, 2021.