I know that our BSA website is seen by many people around the world. I thought I would write something about TISA for two reasons:

1.To spread the word about several conferences taking place in India (Delhi / Pune / Chennai / Dehradun and Herbertpur) in February 2010;

2.To begin an initiative to discuss opening new self-help groups (SHGs) in any country of the world and to discuss international SHG activities.

My visit to India in February 2010

A milestone event occurred near the end of last year. TISA (The Indian Stammering Association) was registered as a Charity. As I planted the idea of TISA to Indian People Who Stammer (IPWS) in 2006, I regarded it as very good news and decided to go to India to help them to celebrate the achievement, so I am making a private visit to India to meet many of my Internet TISA friends.

I gave the TISA team dates in February this year and they planned a round tour so that I could meet with as many SHGs as possible. There are 12 SHGs in India now and they need to expand to more Indian States and more Indian Cities.

The tour is as follows.
Delhi 11th Feb to 15th Feb
Pune 15th Feb to 18th Feb
Chennai 18th Feb to 22nd Feb
Dehradun / Herbertpur 22nd Feb to 25th Feb
Back to London on the 26th Feb.

There will be at least 3 stammering conferences where I am to be the main speaker. The non-conference time will be spent in meetings set up by local IPWS. I and other TISA members will meet privately or in groups with IPWS / SHGs / media (newspapers, radio or TV) / teachers (lecturers) / schools (colleges or universities) / employers / parents, families, friends / Therapists / local health staff / or anyone with an interest who wants to talk. We want to talk about how stammering affected our lives; possible therapies; SHGs; children who stammer (CWS) in schools / education; pre-school CWS and any other relevant subjects like interviews / dating / etc..

If you are interested in India then both http://t-tisa.blogspot.com and http://stammer.in are worth a visit. Also, if anyone has friends or family in India who might be interested, tell them to get in touch with me (keithmaxkb@yahoo.com). If anyone wishes to make a donation to this very new Charity, set up to raise the awareness of stammering in India, I can direct you to the Indian TISA Treasurer.

Self-help groups

One of the objectives, which will interest SHGs in the UK is that I want to find out about the Indian SHG activities. For more on this, see Self-help groups: opening new ones and what activities are valuable for members.

I look forward to meeting you in India or joining the discussion on SHGs in the yahoo group, stutteringselfhelp.

Keith Boss
BSA Trustee; International Stuttering Association Director; Chair of ISA Outreach

Media coverage:
Stuck in a Stutter - livemint.com, 8/2/10

January 2010