The SAFA Counselling Centre!
We had the opportunity to meet the lovely ladies of the SAFA
Counselling Centre at the Good Market! Although their headquarters are located at exactly, No 31 S. De S. Jayasinghe Mawatha, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka. This organisation specialises in offering Individual counselling, Family/ Couples counselling / Awareness programmes and Marriage Workshops. As per our conversation with them, they noticed that there is a higher rate in divorces amongst the Muslim community, so they decided it's time to make a change and bring about a space where people could talk things out and avoid getting into a union that's set to fail. We believe SAFA is a safe space for people who feel like they just need to talk things out and sort out personal concerns. We were also told that SAFA employs professional councellors and also swear by their ability to give you the help you need in utmost confidentiality.
We spoke to some of the ladies who were present at the stall at the Good Market. Firstly, we had the pleasure of talking to Mrs. Ameena
Mustafa the president of the SAFA Counselling centre. She stated that the SAFA counselling centre had decided to book a stall at the Good Market to create awareness about Mental Health in view of World Mental Health Day.
She says that “Mental Illnesses can be cured like physical illnesses; however early detection is most important, adding that “It is very important not to feel embarrassed as there are people that can help you”.
Mrs Mustafa stated that at the SAFA Counselling centre there is a team of professional counsellors that can assist anyone whether they need counselling for stress, depression or even drug addiction. She reiterated that while each session is carried out in strict confidence, the team also advocates against there being any stigma surrounding mental illness. She added that the organisation dedicates time to focusing on marriage counselling especially in the Muslim community as they have noticed there is a rise in divorce rates amongst the community members. She further noted that there is a certain level of importance in seeking marriage counselling prior to getting married in order for the marriage to be a healthier, happy one.
Speaking to Hasna Faiz who is a part time counsellor at the SAFA counselling centre, she stated that the centre has had a lot of positive response from the community for the work that they have done, adding that the centre gets calls inquiring about what issues the centre handles. Hasna noted that the inquiries alone motivate the team because it is a clear indication that a conversation has been started and that people do really want to actively seek help when they may need it.
We spoke to another member of the SAFA team Fadia Saleem and dived a little deeper as the conversation went on. She noted that the beginning of Stigma breaking has started, which is indeed something to be celebrated. She even added that while SAFA hosts many marriage workshops and conducts marital & pre-marital counselling the response post these programmes have proven to be very positive.
She said “We have also gotten feedback from girls specially where they were smart enough to figure out after our workshops that their husbands were homosexuals, and they were simply marrying for the reason that their parents were forcing them to do so. So they got that smart because the tips really helped them figure out how to check out and what to go for, so it really helped them and they thank us”. When we asked her how the team would handle the situation after a partner was in fact found out to be homosexual to which she replied “See it depends, we need to get around the person so as to find out how it all began, what triggered it and it's also like a chemical reaction in the body, it's how it triggered in that person. You can't judgementally say this is the reason and this is the reason”.