Name: Geeta Watagure
Title: Community Mental Health Volunteer
Location: Pimpalgaon, Chandrapur, Maharashtra
When Geeta Watagure attended Ambuja Foundation’s Aatmiyata mental health training in 2022, she was grieving her husband’s death and raising her young daughter alone. Today, she is a vital source of emotional support in her village, helping others facing distress.
In just 4 years, Geeta Tai has become one of the strongest emotional support systems in her village—helping others navigate depression, domestic violence, addiction, and emotional distress. What began as a personal journey of healing has grown into a quiet but powerful community mental health network across rural Chandrapur.
- Finding Purpose Through Community Support
- Healing While Learning to Help Others
- Supporting Women in Crisis
- Bringing Mental Health Conversations into the Open
- Building a Community-Based Mental Health System
Before joining the programme, Geeta Tai worked as a Pashu Sakhi under Ambuja Foundation’s animal husbandry initiative. When a vacancy opened for a community mental health volunteer, women from her Self-Help Group encouraged her to apply.Initially, she refused, believing she was not emotionally capable of helping others while struggling herself. But fellow community workers persuaded her to attend the first training simply to reconnect with people. That decision became a turning point.
Through Aatmiyata trainings, Geeta Tai slowly rebuilt her confidence. Sessions on emotional wellbeing, counselling, active listening, and recognising distress helped her begin rebuilding her own life while supporting others facing similar struggles. One realization stayed with her deeply: if she gave up, what would happen to her daughter? That thought pushed her forward.
One woman Geeta Tai counselled was facing domestic violence, alcoholism at home, and pressure to marry her daughter before the age of 18. Overwhelmed and suicidal, she turned to Geeta Tai for support. Drawing from her own experiences, Geeta Tai encouraged her to prioritise her daughters’ education and emotional wellbeing. Over time, the family situation stabilised significantly.
Geeta Tai also supported a farmer who fell into severe depression after his wife left the family. Through regular visits and counselling, she helped him gradually reconnect with his children, farming, and daily life. These conversations, once rarely spoken about openly in the village, are now slowly becoming part of community life.
What makes the Aatmiyata Programme unique is its community led approach. Rather than relying only on formal healthcare systems, local volunteers like Geeta Tai are trained to provide early emotional support and connect people to further care where needed.
Since 2021, the programme has expanded across 52 villages in Chandrapur district in collaboration with Ambuja Cements Ltd./Adani Cement, helping reduce stigma and bring mental health support closer to rural communities.
For Geeta tai, who has now helped with over 15 cases, healing came through connection, purpose, and community. Today, she is part of a growing ‘Hope Network’ of trained volunteers helping bring mental health conversations out of silence and into everyday rural life.
