Elvin Carl Croker

WITH the prevalence of suicide and mental health problems plaguing society, the ‘Give Another Chance Foundation’ completed a successful three-day “Mindfulness and emotional intelligence” workshop on Friday which saw over 20 teachers, social workers and other persons certified in the field.

Founder of the Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Miranda Thakur-Deen, related that the workshop was birthed out the foundation’s understanding that if they work with children from an early age they would get them to deal with their emotions, show empathy to others, and later in life to be able to deal adequately with depression and anxiety. The three-day workshop on “Mindfulness and emotional intelligence” was taught by a team of UK experts.

President of the foundation, Alesha Amos, said the programme is geared towards persons in childcare, welfare, teaching and parenting to afford them the opportunity to have a first-hand experience and training on how to practice “Mindfulness and emotional intelligence”.

Amos also shared the concern that people are experiencing a range of emotional problems from anger to depression, loneliness, sadness, unreasonable behavior, and etcetera. She hailed the programme a success and made a call for persons to embrace the foundation’s call for social emotional learning to be taught in schools.

“We would like to encourage Guyanese to gravitate to this teaching which speaks to us and how we should speak to ourselves and deal with our energies and emotions,” she said.
Meanwhile, Thakur-Deen related that they can take what they were taught to their homes, communities, and offices to promote and help youths, “Because the future of this country is dependent on the development of our children today,” she said.

Thakur-Deen said the foundation also wants to petition the government to have ‘social emotional learning’ in schools. This she said will help to reduce the cases that would lead to suicide and mental health problems.

One of the participants, Anju Vivekanandaraj, an Indian National and a teacher at the Canadian School of Art and Science in Diamond on the East Bank, Demerara, shared what she gained from the workshop. She said she teaches Chinese Mandarin, and has observed that most children need to develop themselves and need be more emotionally mature. She said she observed that they would allow small things to cause them a lot of stress. “So for that reason I think what we are being taught here can help a lot, especially when it comes to schoolchildren”, she noted.

Vivekanandaraj pointed out that she is now able to help the children to learn how to manage themselves emotionally, control their emotions and learn how to self-regulate their emotions so that it doesn’t bring any injury to themselves or the people around them.

She further noted that if one needs to develop their emotional intelligence or EQ, she advised that mindfulness is one of the best ways to do it in their day-to-day life. This she said will help in being more self-aware and in paying attention to the emotions that is happening within your body, “this will cause you to be able to regulate the emotions better which is called mindfulness”.

By practicing mindfulness, she advised, you can improve or develop your emotional intelligence. She related that in the communities where there are more mental health problems, stress and suicide, she would be able to put into practice what is mindfulness and emotional intelligence.

She said she will implement them with the children she teaches. This, she said, will help them to focus more and help her to be more confident in dealing with them.
Another participant, Shonnel Enoe, said when she first learnt of the programme, she immediately tapped into it because she is interested in psychology or everything that has to do with counselling and social work. She said she has no regrets taking the course. “I am definitely more aware of myself, and it is important for you to be aware of yourself in order for you to help others. If you don’t understand you, you can’t understand somebody else”, she said.

The training has really been helpful in that as much as she sees herself as being somebody who pays attention to herself; it has helped her to tap in a lot more physiologically to her own emotions and thoughts in every moment. This, she said, is what she learnt mindfulness is all about; being aware and being present in the moment and understanding your every emotion and thought.

Project leader, Krish Nath, said the training of mindfulness is a strategy and practice which was developed out of Buddhist meditation and yoga practices. This practice, he said, is used in the West as one of the main strategies for mental health problems.
He said the foundation uses a tool called the “rulers tool” from the Yale University which shows how teachers and students can have better relationships.

Going forward the foundation will continue to promote the teaching countrywide with the ultimate goal of having it included in the school curriculum, since it will help in dealing with everyday life challenges and setting goals, she said.

The foundation said plans are already in train for the big symposium and children’s march set for November and have issued a call for persons who wish to participate to contact the foundation on its Facebook page or website.

The course ran for eight weeks, however, the fundamentals were addressed in three days. The participants will also follow-up with the foundation’s training team throughout the remainder of the eight weeks to see what help can be developed. All the participants received certificates of attendance and participation.

The foundation hosted the first-ever “Pop-up festival and emotional intelligence awareness walk for children” last year.