Aims and Objectives:

•  To promote understanding in the area of Mental Health
•  To promote families and individuals to cope within their communities
•  To promote justice and freedom
•  To lift the yoke of labelling, stigmatisation and institutionalisation
•  To see happiness
•  To work in and with state run properties only, so that the poorest of the poor are never left out of Nest’s reach.
  

An appreciation of Nest by Dr. Diyanath Samarasinghe, Patron. He is Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He is Consultant Psychiatrist.

Nest began out of concern for a forgotten group – women incarcerated in Unit 2 of Mulleriyawa mental hospital.  A measure of its success is the improvement in their lives and the number of parties now engaged in the exercise.  The most significant improvement is of course the change in level of respect given to the people concerned.  That transformation, remarkable though it is, has not as yet led to anything near an acceptable standard being reached.

With the expansion of Nest’s focus, other forgotten and marginalized groups have benefited.  People infected with hiv or considered at high risk of contracting the virus are an example.  Here too, the change seen is noteworthy just as is the number of individuals and organizations that are now involved in what was initially an unpopular cause.  The plight of children incarcerated in ‘Certified Schools’, after coming before the courts, is similarly better recognized and addressed today.  Nest started its work on this matter long before many others were even aware of the discrimination that such children suffered.

The geographical spread of Nest is on similar lines, always homing in on forgotten areas.  Many of these forgotten places, such as Moneragala and Mannar, are now more in the spotlight.  Nest always moves in to where needs are least adequately addressed, well before others notice, and moves on when enough others take up the cause. 

There are consequences of this way of working.  Firstly, the marginalized and forgotten have hope of being noticed.  Many hopeless lives cease to be so once they are noticed.  Other concerned individual and agencies begin to take up the issues involved.  All of this benefits society.  But to build up the critical mass of interest on any new issue is exhausting.  Mostly because contemplating any change is generally daunting and because it requires challenging or combating vested interests that want to keep things as they are.  So there are hardly any individuals or agencies to take up new and unpopular causes.  The few that are willing generally make themselves unpopular. But such courageous trail blazers are needed to make society move.

Society needs people and organizations ready to join in ongoing moves to improve it.  Fortunately that need is well met.  Some would argue that there are too many waiting to jump on popular bandwagons.  What we are desperately short of are agencies with the energy to get wagons moving and the perspicacity to see where they should be heading.  We are fortunate to have Nest.