About Ma Main

WHO WE ARE

Ma Main is a charitable community group dedicated to supporting members of the community who struggle with mental disorder.

Many people do not feel comfortable to talk about their trouble because they are from a community where people think that talking about ones trouble to some one else is humiliating. People are scared of what others would think or say about them, scared of being judged or criticized, and these negative feelings stop people from opening up to seek assistance. They prefer isolating themselves from the community, keeping their trouble to themselves; they usually thing that if they talk, people would laugh at them, people would call them “looser” or all sort of names designating “failure” in their lives.

For this reason, they retreat into silence, feeding themselves with all sorts of thoughts that can cross their minds, and very often, these are negative, dark and destroying ideas; they then become self-harming or highly dangerous to other people.

We have noticed, in the community, that, when people do not open up with their mental issues, whether they live all alone or with other people, the mental trouble they try to hide away comes out, in one way or another, to become a heartbreaking tragedy that could be avoided if only it was known and taken care of.

WHAT WE DO

With our community group “Ma Main”, we are trying our best to encourage members of the community to feel free and be able to express themselves if needed, and we advise them when we can, for their well-being.

We have created a friendly space to break loneliness and isolation; this space is an environment where anyone in the community is able to have a chance of being listened to, understood and, if necessary, guided towards Social or Mental Health professionals for a better support, without being judged or condemned.

We try to help reasonably, to the limit of our ability, to prevent any predictable drama to happen, and we are planning to work in partnership with Social workers and Mental Help professionals who will provide an appropriate health support to members of community in need.

Because mental disorder can also be caused – among other reasons – by social, economical or cultural reasons, we, at “Ma Main” have decided to tackle some of our community issues through education and re-creative activities like drama.

When people decide to migrate somewhere, they do so with the deep hope of a better life. This is the main reason why people leave their countries and relatives to travel far away, most of the time, in unfamiliar places.

At the beginning of this journey, all migrants are strong-minded, convinced that no matter what, they will succeed.

However, the social and cultural realities make it hard for some people to understand and to accept the rules in their new community. This can be the difficulties in communicating, the misunderstanding of social behavior, the necessity of being positively active in the community, etc.

At this negative point of migrating, people often face sociocultural “codes” they do not understand, they do not assimilate, and they helplessly see their dream become a nightmare, causing serious mental disorder. This is where depression, self-harming, violence to others, and, to an ultimate point, murders occur.

HOW WE DO

At “Ma Main”, we try, as much as possible, to avoid these extreme situations by helping members of our community, to always have a positive and hopeful mindset, to encourage them to fight legally and positively to gain the social status of their dream.

As part of our activities, we do:

• English tutoring
  This is meant to break the communication barrier and help people to get involved in the broad UK society with freedom and happiness. Learning to speak English will open many doors for them, and their dream and ambition for a better life can become true, knowing that, if they succeed, it is a benefit for the whole UK

Drama

Through drama, we depict many of the positive and negative situations that can affect our own personal situations, in one way or another. In doing this, we help members of the community to know how to react or how to behave when in front of such or such other situation. Even if people do not want to open up to talk about their own trouble, but the similarity of the situation dealt with can be very helpful to every one, in the present or in the future time.

To get in touch with us, click here