Kaaren Mathias, who writes on the back page of Tui Motu magazine and Paul Sorrell, our film critic, both visited Tui Motu offices this week. 

Kaaren and her family were home on holiday from North India and she came to Dunedin with her daughter, Sharhira, to give a lecture at the University of Otago. Kaaren is the mental health programme manager for a large Indian health NGO - the Emmanuel Hospital Association and is also the director of a community mental health project, Burans, which started in Uttarakhand state in 2014. Her lecture was about her PhD research in which she is working out effective models for community mental health in low resources settings in her part of India. She explained: 

"Our state has a population of 10,000,000 people and we have four psychiatrists.  Mental health issues are not recognised and people think that they are affected by a evil spirit whereas we would diagnose them with a mental health problem. This means children with epilepsy, or mothers with postpartum depression, are excluded from school and social life."

In one project her community health group has managed to get 60 children with epilepsy the medication that stabilises their condition. This means they can now go to school. 

"The needs are so extensive and what we do seems so little. But little gains give us hope." Kaaren said.

Kaaren began writing for Tui Motu magazine in April 2006 with a monthly column, A Mother's Journal, in which she shared her everyday experiences of balancing family and work and the spirituality underpinning her life. The title for her column has now changed to Looking out and In.  

Tui Motu volunteers joined the staff in welcoming Kaaren and founding editor, Michael Hill IC, who had engaged Kaaren in 2006, met her for the first time. All are keen readers of Kaaren's column and were pleased to meet her and Shar, one of her twin daughters. 

Paul Sorrell is a Dunedinite and has been writing the film review for Tui Motu magazine occasionally since 2004 and monthly since 2010. His wild-life photography has also graced the magazine, most notably his magnificent photo of a tui in kōwhai on the September 2015 cover. Paul joined the group for Kaaren's visit.