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PHILADELPHIA, PA — Indian American entrepreneur Vandana Gopikumar, co-founder of The Banyan and the Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health, is set to receive the 2018 Penn Nursing Renfield Foundation Award for Global Women’s Health.
Gopikumar is receiving the award for her work in helping women with mental health problems in India.
She co-founded both organizations with Vaishnavi Jayakumar. Gopikumar will receive the award–a $100,000 cash prize–during an event at the University of Pennsylvania on March 21.
The Banyan began as a spontaneous and heartfelt response to the visible gaps in care and attention for homeless women with mental health problems, who in the eyes of society simply did not exist, the university said in a news release.
There were no services to help them recover their lost lives. In the beginning, The Banyan offered a transit care facility that offered shelter, safe spaces and crisis intervention.
When it started in 1993, Gopikumar originally set up a shelter for homeless mentally ill women in order to provide care and basic treatment. But she was struck by the realization that the problem was much deeper since India’s mental healthcare system had several missing components.
She saw that the homeless mentally ill required not just medical attention, but a whole spectrum of healthcare and psychosocial services ranging from their rescue off the streets to rehabilitation and reintegration.
Some 150 million Indians are affected with a mental health issue, and that only 5 to 10 percent have access to appropriate care and treatment.
The Banyan’s core philosophy is that every individual should have access to opportunities, be aspirational, and live life to their fullest potential.