Aasra annual Return for 2009 Jan to Dec

Aasra Annual Return for Jan to Dec 2009


Annual Return of Centres

Each Centre is required to compile and submit an Annual Return. Receipt of your Annual Return also indicates your desire to continue your membership of Befrienders Worldwide (BW). The information requested by BW ensures adherence to the Charter and the overall desire to provide the best possible service to those in need of emotional support, however they may wish to access it throughout the world, whilst supported by members of Samaritans UK/ ROI and Befrienders Worldwide.

The Annual Return will also provide each Centre with comprehensive information for its own use, enabling an assessment as to how it is performing, what has changed in the previous year, what changes it may wish to make etc. The monitoring of contact statistics enables Centres to facilitate changes to their services if applicable or necessary. For consistency please provide information for a calendar year (i.e. year starts in January)

Year for this return…………………2009………………

Region (BW definition)……South Asia…

BW Certificate No:01070945………………………..

Contact Information

Name of Centre:……………AASRA………………………………………………………………..
Postal Address:…………104, SUNRISE ARCADE, PLOT 100, SECTOR 16, KOPARKHAIRANE, NAVI MUMBAI 400709
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Country:…INDIA………Post Code…400709………………………

Office No:……………91-22-27546667..
Phone No:(Helpline) 91-22-27546669………………………………

Fax No: None Centre Email address:…aasrahekpline@yahoo.com…….


Centre Information to be included on Befrienders Worldwide website (if different to that above)
Name of Centre:…AASRA…………..
Postal Address:……104 SUNRISE ARCADE, PLOT 100, SECTOR 16, KOPARKHAIRANE, NAVI MUMBAI-MAHARASHTRA…………………………………………………………………………………………………
Country:……………………INDIA…………………Post Code………400709

Telephone Nos:
Helpline No…………91-22-27546669….. Office…91-22-27546667..

Fax…………NONE… Centre Email address:…aasrahelpline@yahoo.com.

Web site address:……www.aasra.info……………… Helpline email (if used)……aasrahelpline@yahoo.com....


Volunteer Information
Number of Volunteers 22 plus 20 substitute volunteers(non-regular)….Number of paid staff…None….

Roles of paid staff (include hours employed for each person):
………………………………….………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Operational Information
Hours of operation………24 hours all days……………

Number of Volunteers on duty when Centre is operational: 22

How people in need contact you.

Type of Contact Number of contacts (not %)
Telephone 33453
Face- face 845
Letter 123
Email 2049
Text 23
other 452
Total number of contacts 36945









Define other…workshops, outreach, awareness, visits to institutions

contacts expressing suicidal thoughts…35110……………………………………….

Number of female contacts…18216… Number of male contacts…18724….

Special programmes you run?.. multi-level Workshops..for schools , degree and professional colleges, NGO staff, corporates etc. Outreach programmes with the institutionalised and the marginalized, Awareness programmes in housing societies, educational institutions and other organisations. Also support group programmes ..suicide affected families, suicide survivors and HIV positive, bi-annual suicide prevention training programs for the general public,quarterly Talks at HELP library, annual programs for Suicide prevention day, suicide prevention week, mnetal ealth week, And programs with NGO Forum including legal aid seminar for women, skill set training for the unemployed and marginalised, leadership training for grassroots workers, volunteer training, support services for MDACS HIV helpline, Basic psychology-understanding the human mind training for general public, soft skills and suicide prevention training for Medical students and BPO workers..

Funding
Where do you get your funding?........Individual donors............................................................................
.......................................................................................................................................

Annual running costs (local currency)……Rs. 1,45,000/-………………….

Is your Centre a registered charity/ Trust/ Incorporated Society/recognised NGO? Yes/No Information/ Charity Number (if applicable):……E-2047 registered as a charitable trust under the Maharashtra charities act 1960

National Information
Is there a National body? Yes

Name of National Body……Befrienders India…..

Other Organisations your Centre is associated with or has on going contact with …………………………………………NGO forum of Navi Mumbai, 1298 womens helpline, childline, hiv aids network of ngos, MDACS, Nareshwadi Orphanage,.Mumbai helplines network, national helplines network, Bombay United, TISS
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Twinning Information
Are you twinned with another Centre?........no..............If yes, which one?.........................

If no, would you be interested in having a Twin? Yes

Have you had contact with your Twin this year? No

Your Centre’s Twinning contact person……Nita Das Gupta……………………………………………..
Contact details (if different to that of your Centre) ……………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………….
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Further information

Other information you may wish to share with fellow members about your Centre
Aasra just completed 11 years of operations with 75,674callers and counting. We had a candle lighting ceremony with a renewal of the Aasra pledge for all the volunteers. And we celebrated in muted fashion. Just a cake cutting and sharing of light snacks and soft-drinks.
Participated in the annual Marathon and generated publicity for the centre’s services.
For Suicide prevention day this year we conducted a week long poster and poetry competition for the 9th and 10th std students –topics were life is beautiful, hurdles are the stepping stones to success (for the posters) and Life, stress and coping for the poetry competition.
The events were judged and prizes were awarded on the 10th of sept- a musical night of motivational songs by Pallav Pandya, a brief speech by Johnson and candle lighting at 8pm. The event was given wide coverage in the newspapers Asian Age, HT and on TV by Zee TV. Johnson also was on a live chat organised by Times wellness between 2 and 3 pm.
Currently we are also pursuing a project on HIV and suicide, assisting the Apex HIV prevention body MDACS in support counselling for the HIIV infected. We continue to conduct workshops for NGO’s , school and college students and corporates- completed 21 such workshops in the 2009. We continue to stress on awareness also and go about distributing bookmarks and leaflets at public events like Film festivals, Theatre festivals, Mumbai festival, Bandra Festival etc.
Aasra volunteers also sold hand crafted items at the Friday fleamarket stalls in several malls.
Add-on training workshops for volunteers, friends and family Topics covered ‘Understanding Basic Psychology’, ‘Child Psychology’, ‘Communication skills’

Aasra presented a PPT presentation on Late life Depression at the 14th Befrienders India Conference held at Hyderabad by host center Roshni. Aasra volunteers also performed a song at a public function organised by Roshni volunteers on the occasion of World Volunteers Day(Dec 5th)

Suicide Survivors Day prog on Dec 12- ‘Re-engaging with Life’ – celebrating suicide survivors day, Sharing of experiences by victims and families affected by suicide, song ‘Heal the world’ by young Aasra supporter Aakash Francis, audio visual documentary(DVD) presentation(1 and 1/2 hr) from American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and classical music recital by noted sarod player Vivek Joshi.

This year,2010, we have aldready conducted 24 workshops for teachers and students in schools and colleges SIES college, army school, Cathedral school, SIES school, Fr.agnel, St Xaviers, Nagpur Medical college, Navodaya school, New Horizon school, Ded and Bed colleges, Etc.Aasra was also invited for consultations with ORF foundation and TISS to discuss modalities and devise programs to prevent the increasing number of student suicides in the country. Aasra has initiated support group services for the mentally ill and their families in different nodes accross mumbai and navi mumbai. So far 12 are running concurrently.

For 2010 sept 10 suicide prevention day program- we have organised full day poster exhibitions and awareneess drives accross 10 malls in Navi mumbai. We have also teamed up with musician Pallav Pandya for a musical program supporting the cause of suicide prevention. Sept 13 we complete 12 years as an organisation and we will be holding a candlelight march inthe evening. For mental health week we will be holding an awareneess talk at HELP library.


Aasra continues to enjoy wide and appreciative coverage in the national and international news media -Times of india, Telegraph, Indian Express, DNA, Midday, The Hindustan times, Maharashtra Times, Free press journal, the afternoon, local and national vernacular papers, Le Monde, Europa, australian Radio, London Times, Al jazeera, Bindaas, CnnIBN, Readers Digest, The Week, Open, The Hindu, Telegraph, Mumbai Mirror, Outlook, BBC, NDTV, IBNLokmat, Headlines Today, Radio mirchi, radio star, radio midday, asian age, Sunday midday , Newsweek Asia, Business International,etc.

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Name of person completing annual return:……Johnson Thomas………………………………………….

Role in the Centre:………Director…………………………………………………………………..

Contact Details (if not using Centre’s contact details)…mob: 0-9820466726 email: johnsont307@gmail.com
……rh2, plot 3, madhavi chs, sector 19A, nerul eat, Navi Mumbai-400706…………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Signed…Jthomas Date 30 july 2010…