Rotary Club of Del Mar-Solana Beach helps support India-based nonprofit

With support from the Rotary Club of Del Mar-Solana Beach, the nonprofit organization A VIEW, which stands for A Village of Independent and Enterprising Women, has been supporting women in India who are experiencing mental illness.

Dr. Suchandra Brahma, a founding member of the nonprofit, is also a Rotarian. She said Rotary Club of Del Mar-Solana Beach assisted in supporting A VIEW in 2020 with a $35,000 grant that helped the nonprofit hire more social workers, food, medicine and other amenities to care for the women who need help.

Those women often come from psychiatric wards, halfway houses and police stations, where social workers connect with them, according to the nonprofit’s website. They often have experienced family trauma, including the death of children or other loved ones, or health issues that have made it hard to support themselves.

The Rotary grant helped A VIEW assist the women in multiple other ways.

“It also supported their rehabilitation and vocational training, outreach to connect with estranged family members, and coordinate care to enable some of them to be able to return home,” said Brahma, a board certified adult psychiatrist who was born in North Dakota, raised in India and lives in the Del Mar area.

When Brahma moved back to Kolkata, India, about 20 years ago she learned about Rotary and got involved with a local group. She joined the Del Mar-Solana Beach Club after moving back to San Diego.

A second Rotary global grant for $32,000 helped A VIEW residents and staff learn organic farming, including how to enrich soil and to help salvage it after the adverse effects of things like pesticide usage.

“We have steadily increased the number of women who have successfully been reintegrated with their families, and another group who have become independent and live in small groups together like group homes where they are managing most aspects of their lives,” Brahma said. “We intend to be able to continue growing the number of women we rehabilitate.”

Some of A VIEW’s goals moving forward include getting funding for doctors and psychiatrists, electronic record keeping and management, and raising more awareness in India about mental health issues.

The Rotary Club of Del Mar-Solana Beach, which launched in 1992, has supported local organizations such as Casa De Amistad in addition to international programs in places including India and El Salvador.

The club meets every Friday morning and often has different guest speakers. For more information, visit dmsbrotary.com.