Hyderabad: NGO Roshni sheds light to dispel lockdown fears

Hyderabad: City-based NGO Roshni is helping those struggling due to lockdown by providing them free counselling and emotional support.

Founded in December 1997 by Shashi and the other trustees Shanti, Poonam and Srikanth, the NGO has 65 volunteers who actively give their time attending to calls on helpline 040-66202000/2001. They work from from 11 am to 9 pm.

Krishna Kumar, a senior volunteer at NGO, says, "There is an increase in the number of calls during the lockdown from the city as well as across the country. We receive anywhere around 20 to 30 calls every day.

Calls relate to insecurity, the uncertainty of jobs, fear of failure of financial commitment, the stress of children, increased cases of pandemic etc.

There were times when we received more than 60 calls in a day which were handled by our volunteers trained in befriending with the callers."

"We also get emails and we have a dedicated team for it. We also have a referral diary to help in the case of very high-risk callers who are counselled by our 12 experienced clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.

We have an offshoot of Roshni trust by name Roshni counselling centre where we refer our callers/visitors, if think they need medical intervention.

We are on the referral of Hyderabad police who seek our services for the people savef from suicide attempts," he adds further.