Self-help groups – Indian tour

By Keith Boss

A milestone event in India occurred near the end of last year when TISA (The Indian Stammering Association) was registered as a charity. I regarded it as very good news and decided to visit India last February to help them celebrate the achievement, and to meet many of my TISA friends.

Some ideas for self-help group activities: Reverse story telling – tell a story starting with the last thing that happened and go back from that Each in turn says a word, whose first letter is the last letter of the previous word Each sing (or say) a line of a song, the last word being the first word of the next song Have a game to rush speech and speak very quickly Mock interviews - practice job interviews Interview members of the public about stammering Each give a speech for 3 or 5 minutes Set stage and have public speeches, in room and in a park Talk about teasing and self-assertion Talk about spirituality (religion / meditation / other) Get into groups of two and then introduce your partner to the meeting Change who is in charge of each part of the meeting Give feedback about meetings Talk about good speaking experiences.

I attended and gave talks to self-help group (SHG) meetings in Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Herbertpur. Some members of other groups joined us. The majority of group members said they went to meetings because they wanted to improve their speaking ability. A small minority had no specific agenda. That was fine.

One aspect I talked about was some similarities between SHGs and Toastmasters. Both groups can help to improve communication and leadership skills. People who stammer have a tendency to have low self-esteem. By giving responsibility for part or all of an SHG meeting to different members, the group can help a person who stammers with poor self-image to improve their leadership skills.

Human Resource Managers at one employer in Chennai, Cognizant, organised a meeting of interested local staff (more than 40) for four of us to address. The managers were very interested and have already arranged an evening SHG club on their site.

In India there is still a stigma about stammering. This is especially true for females. There are still many arranged marriages in India. I was told that potential brides must be 'perfect', including speech. Girls who stammer very quickly become covert or find a way to speak with a lot of fluency. Because of this, and other cultural aspects TISA is training a married Indian lady, a fluent speaker, to be able to help female members. The one female member which TISA has at present finds membership of her local SHG very useful, and other females are making contact.

Please contact me with any questions: keithmaxkb@yahoo.com

Keith Boss is a BSA Trustee, an International Stuttering Association Director, and Chair of ISA Outreach

From Speaking Out Summer 2010, page 11