When a well wisher forwarded this today, I remembered the first draft of my mail I had sent to few of my contacts a couple of years back - trying to find like minded people to form the society with the objective to create awareness on Dementia.
Now when people reach out to us when a Dementia patient is missing or when they find a relative is suffering from Dementia and they do not know how to deal with it, I have to ask three fundamental questions:
Is awareness enough?
Is there any action we can take now?
Is it possible to avoid?
You need not be part of an NGO, or any movement – just be responsible for yourself. Some things really are not in the capacity of an NGO as those are individual choices. Awareness bit is our scope. Action piece is yours.
Your life style
Your pursuits
Your priorities
The whole of this year went in shaping a model called BLESS (Book Library and Exchange Skills/ Services) conceptualized by a few voracious readers which is platform to share learning, skills and engage people in meaningful activities – change lives, thought patterns and even belief system. As we know, just being aware is not enough, this was an attempt to allow people escape routine and make community initiative a personal choice and also take care of their well being.
Next time you are part of anti obesity drive or walk for Diabetes or attend a workshop on Dementia, go beyond awareness, Act!! Like my friend just did, by forwarding this to me.
Author Profile:
Kakuli Nag has authored two books and is a consultant for learning solutions and content strategy.
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| Source: Publication Daily Mirror |
