Sharing experiences: Founder and Director of Dance Movement Therapy Organisation, India
Name: Sohini Chakraborty
Position: Founder and Director
Organisation: Kolkata Sanved
Country/State where based: Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Contact: kolkatasanved(at)gmail.com
1. Tell us a little bit about your role and how you're involved in supporting children affected by sexual exploitation and/or trafficking?
As the Founder and Director of Kolkata Sanved, I have worked with survivors of trafficking and violence across South Asia. As a Sociologist, Dancer and Dance Movement Therapist, I fight to not only teach dance, but to make them stronger individuals in society and live with dignity and self respect.
Kolkata Sanved's model is based on healing and empowering survivors through Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) to transcend their trauma and become educators and activists employed by the organisation to break the cycle of marginalisation and violence, and in turn, create and perpetuate a new cycle of empowerment and growth.
We have reached out to 5,000 directly and 10,000 and more through our unique and innovative approach of psychosocial rehabilitation.
2. What activities and assistance does your organisation offer to children and their families who have been affected by sexual exploitation and/or trafficking?
Kolkata Sanved serves trafficking survivors, survivors of violence and exploitation and children who are at risk. After providing psychosocial care through DMT, we provide livelihood opportunities by employing survivors as DMT Trainers. In some cases survivors have implemented the training in their own communities by themselves. The uniqueness of Kolkata Sanved is that its core employee group is from the marginalised community.
Activities include:
- Regular DMT sessions in government shelter homes and in partner organisations
- Collaboration, Training of the Trainers (TOT) and workshops at the local, national and international level
- Advocacy campaigning through performances and seminars
- Kolkata Sanved Academy programme
- Development of DMT tool kit and curriculum
- Capacity building of Kolkata Sanved Dance Movement Trainers
- Impact analysis
3. What are the biggest challenges in working in this area?
- Risk of re-traumatisation of the survivors who are the employees of Kolkata Sanved
- Funders believing in DMT as a tool for social change
4. What are the highlights?
Acceptance and recognition both nationally and internationally:
Kolkata Sanved works with 30 NGOs in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Indonesia to conduct DMT workshops with victims of trafficking and violence and deliver capacity building sessions to train trainers. Sanved also works in government shelter homes and hospitals.
We partner with international networks such as the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women (GAATW), Vital Voices, Beyond Sport, American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA), World Dance Alliance (WDA) and Living Lens UK.
Sanved Kolkata has been globally recognized and received awards including:
2009: Beyond Sport Award for best project for health
2011: The DVF (Diane von Furstenberg) award for transforming other women's lives
5. What do you think works well or is important for children in their recovery and why?
From our experience, violence has a tremendous adverse affect both mentally and physically on children who have been sexually exploited and trafficked. This is followed by the separation between the mind and the body of the child along with trauma. It leads to self-blame and self-hatred and installs a sense of guilt into the mind and the child starts believing that "my life has become hopeless and has come to an end", in addition the child is alienated from mainstream society. Therefore, the child's psycho-physical state needs to be given more attention for sustainable recovery. In most cases this part remains neglected.
For victims of violence and abuse, traditional rehabilitation and verbal counselling techniques are not sufficient. The incorporation of new, innovative and alternative approaches are necessary for recovery. Creative expressive art therapy can play a major role, through DMT, in transforming a victim to a pro active advocate, where they are the key agent in bringing about change.
6. What knowledge or information would help you and your colleagues strengthen your work?
- Exposure visits to other organisations doing similar work
- A database of national NGOs applying creative expressive art therapies
- Books and films on DMT and other creative expressive art therapies
- Information and workshops on DMT
- Knowledge exchange between Dance Movement Therapists across the country
- Studies related to the causes of trafficking, violence and abuse of women and children, the level of their vulnerability and different rehabilitative methods
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