World Mental Health Day is celebrated every year on 10thOctober. This year, the theme was ‘Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World’. As part of its educative programme, Bosco Boys Home, Borivali organised a ‘World Health Day’ awareness programme for their boys on 10 October to make them aware of the importance of keeping themselves fit and fine. 38 boys participated in the session along with the staff.
Ms. Meena Kini, the Counsellor for the boys conducted the session with the help of few creative videos on mental health, explaining and making the boys understand about the basic idea behind mental health, and how it is reflected in one’s daily life. The signs and symptoms, the prevalence and occurrence along with treatment and interventions were highlighted upon in her talk.
Mr. Eustace Fernandes, the Educational In-charge for the boys shared with them the example of actress Deepika Padukone, how she shared on various social media platforms about her mental health issues and the depression she faced. He emphasized that mental illness can affect any person irrespective of their age, gender, economic and societal status.
After this, Ms. Kini conducted a meditative relaxation exercise for the boys. After the relaxation exercise, the boys 
were asked to draw or write about their experience during the session. Several boys gave feedback of feeling very relaxed. They also experienced a feel-good factor, as mentioned by one of the boys, Nizam Sheik. He said “I felt like I was in a garden, and so I later drew one. I felt like the bright flowers grazing the sun and absorbing sunrays. I felt like some kind of positive energy flowing through me.”
The boys found the information on mental health to be relevant and useful. They actively participated in the exercise and reported experiencing calmness and relaxation during the session. Ms. Eula D’sa one of the volunteers, shared, “Holding such sessions frequently would be beneficial to the emotional stability of the boys. It will definitely help the boys to maintain their health and hygiene because we all know health is wealth and only when we take care of our self will we be able to take care of others.”
