During our teenage years, we transition into the adults we want to be, but we often doubt our thoughts, appearances, and everything in between. Sriram V, founder of NalandaWay Foundation, was no different. “I was terrible at school and it came from a low self-esteem and the fear of subjects, of getting on stage, of talking about who you are, of being picked by your teachers, and being bullied by some of your peers,” he says.
Due to the lack of resources to share the mental turmoil he was going through, Sriram took some drastic steps. It went on until he was in class 11 when one of his teachers said, “It is okay to not mug and learn concepts through debating. It is okay to learn differently”. He did not want other kids to go through similar difficulties.
To help them, he quit his IT job and formed NalandaWay Foundation. “In 2003, I went on a journey, from the birth to Mahanirvana of Buddha. Nalanda was one of the sites. It was a centre of learning that believed in a system with no syllabus or curriculum. The students decide what they want to learn and the mentors guide them. Using the Nalanda’s way of learning, NalandaWay was formed,” he says.
This organisation, founded in 2005, uses arts and art-based activities for children to address their mental health issues. Working on the principle of trust is a culture Sriram has built through the years. They have a team of 160 members and offices in Chennai, Delhi, Punjab and Thiruvananthapuram.
Excerpts follow:
How did NalandaWay come into existence?
In January 2005, an oily-haired and well-dressed boy walked into my office carrying a backpack. He asked, ‘Do you want to buy agarbatti’? There was something curious about him. My friends and I asked him who he was, and where he came from. He said he was coming from Korukkupettai. His father was no more and his mother and sister made these agarbattis and soaps. He goes to school in the day and to different parts of the city to sell the products in the evenings. It was mesmerising because he wasn’t begging. That quality moved me.
If given mentorship and information, these kids would do better in life. What if the mentor was from another community, religion, or caste? Hence, the mentor will know the problem better and will improve the kids’ future capabilities. So, the next day, I quit my job and went on the ground to help the children.
Detail your initial days.
The idea was for a volunteer mentoring programme, allowing corporate volunteers to work with children. We (seven volunteers) started from Ayodhyakuppam. For someone like me, with no formal education in social work, approaching people was difficult. But one experience led to another. We honestly shared with them what we wanted to do, and they (residents) trusted us at an intuitive level.
While we continued with the programme, we noticed that the boys were not going to school. When asked, their answers revolved around lack of interest, abusive teacher, not liking class, and/or not understanding anything. So we asked them which standard they were in and which subject they did not like, and they said it was History.
One of the volunteers was a theatre director. We decided to convert History chapters into a play by getting the kids to write the dialogues and make it into a play. After staging, we asked the students the same questions their teachers would ask them. The response was fantastic because the kids could relate to and understand the question.
That changed my perspective on how we need to take our journey further. We can use arts in the classroom, children will love what they are learning, and be able to express their fears through the arts. That was a critical turning point for NalandaWay because starting then, our intervention method became specific and focused.
Between 2005 and 2009, our work was primarily workshops. We partnered with NGOs to work with a community for 10 days, to create a production. Then I realised that we were just being temporary. How do the work and its output change their lives? So, we stopped all our ongoing projects across the country and came to Chennai, to work with community schools long term.
What is your USP?
We have been in the industry for 19 years now, it’s because we are seeing very closely why we are doing what we are doing. We are asking and critiquing ourselves, whether the work that we are doing is making a distinguishable difference in the lives of the children and young people. And if it doesn’t, then we change. For example: If I am part of a programme and I describe my trauma in a meaningful, quantitative, or even qualitative way and can find a way to heal, then we are on the way to what we set out to achieve.
Tell us about a few of your programmes.
We work with adolescent girls — project Sakhi — where we enrol girls at the age of 13, and support them for the next eight years, till they become financially independent. We support them with life skills, academics, sexual and reproductive health sessions, health, and nutrition.
We work in all the government-run childcare institutions in Tamil Nadu. These children come from a troubled past. The objective is not only to engage them in education but also to address their trauma. We ensure that they can find skills that will give them an opportunity to get into college and jobs. Our intervention is not complete till that is achieved.
We are also working with governments to create curriculum for their arts programme. The arts curriculum for Delhi government is designed by us. In Tamil Nadu, we are working on an art-based method to look at the mental health and well-being of adolescents. So the entire curriculum for all 6,500 Tamil Nadu schools — 30 lakh kids — is delivered by us in partnership with UNICEF.
In all the Chennai Corporation Schools, from standard 1 to 5, we teach the teachers to run the programme in a way that is going to be more sustainable. The goal is for the child to learn arts, question emotions, ability to label feelings, and develop better emotional self-regulation.
What other programmes are you planning to implement?
We are experimenting with a playing cards-based game called ‘Ready Joot’ in five slums in Chennai. The purpose is to get adolescent boys and girls to sit together, without adults, and talk about what makes them anxious. It is a safe space where a peer in their age group is given training to become a peer leader in the community. He/she uses the game to make these conversations and to clarify their concerns about body, skin colour, sex, menstruation, emotions, and so on. Around 2,000 kids are trained to be peer leaders, who play this game with 500 kids over four months. So 10,000 kids are aware of all of this information. Including Tamil Nadu, states like Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are considering using ‘Ready Joot’ in their schools.
We are working with an international non-profit organisation based in the US that works in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. We are developing an art-based curriculum for them which will be used in Africa, and other places. This means we need to be sure about context, culture, region, and race as we are creating something inclusive and respectful. They expect us to be a long-term partner.
How and when did you start weaving?
In early 2021, I attended a workshop on weaving at Shuttles and Needles in Adyar and fell in love with the craft. In the latter half of 2021, I went to the US to do a programme on using fibre and mixed media art in North Carolina. That changed my perspective. Between 2022 and 2023, I have had an art mentor to work with me. And today, my studio is my cave. I do not want to create costumes from gaining this knowledge, but to make art.
How is the shift in mental health among today’s children?
There is a lot more awareness. But, there is also a lot of stigma, especially for adolescents. The inability to have conversations at home with parents is also creating anxiety. I see false information floating and people have found vocabulary for every possible state of mind. Using mental health loosely is not helping anybody.
Men and boys, particularly, lack space to express their vulnerabilities. In disadvantaged sections, boys are quick to drop out of education as they are not motivated and I am worried about them.
What do you propose to do next?
We want to be known as a pioneer in using arts for men, health, and well-being. We are a fairly recognised organisation in this space in the country. In the next 10 years, our mission is to solve one problem — over 2.5 million children are under institutional care in India, we want to ensure that every child comes through these homes with hope, resilience, and skills to create the life they want. My biggest ambition is to work with governments and other NGOs to create an ecosystem, resources, and capabilities that children need. We want to work with a few 1,000 children and make a significant change in their lives.
For more details email: contact@nalandaway.org