BALM-SFL fellowship given to 7 persons from five States

Seven individuals from five States nationwide received the BALM-SFL fellowship at an event organised by The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM), sponsored by Sundram Fasteners Limited, on Tuesday.

Education scholarship

Along with the fellowship, the BALM-SFL Education Scholarship for children from vulnerable backgrounds and the BALM-SFL Education Scholarship for students of MSW in Mental Health were also awarded.

Around 15 students from the Madras School of Social Work received the latter. Chief guest M. Mahadevan, Chairman & Managing Director of Advantage Foods Pvt. Ltd. & Hot Breads presented the awards. “I came to know about other people’s suffering through my association with The Banyan for over three decades,” he said. The fellows of this year include Harsha A.R., Nupur Milind Joshi, Harshit Patel, Adesh Balu Bagul, Nganthoi Tongbram, Rudhresh Kumar, and Swetha U. who work either as mental health innovators or field immersion fellows with BALM from April 2026 to March 2027.

“When it comes to the Community Immersion fellowship, the fellows will be placed directly at The Banyan’s sites such as emergency care, recovery services, and home again. When it comes to innovation fellowship, it is looking at groundbreaking projects, moving beyond talking therapies to explore the ways in which we can communicate with people in distress and tackle mental health matters in socially disadvantaged contexts,” added Lakshmi Sankaran, Director Training at BALM.

K.S. Ramesh, Director, Education, Social Action and Administration at BALM, and guest of honour J.S. Gunavathy, Prinicipal, Madras School of Social Work also spoke.