MSSI Chennai chapter celebrated Christmas on Saturday 17 December 2022 at the BOSCH Office. The program started with Christmas Carols by Mr. Stanley & Band. The Christmas message was delivered by Mrs. Mercy Vishnu, PwMS & her husband Vishnu, PwMS dressed up as Santa Claus for the whole evening. He danced to music & disturbed gifts to all members and caregivers. Everyone enjoyed playing games like ‘Human Christmas Tree’ where you dress each other with decorations, representing the Christmas Tree. A game of Tombola was followed by high tea & the celebrations came close on a touching note with songs by Ms. Jothi a blind singer.

The Annual Picnic 2022 took place on 2nd October 2022, Sunday at Joe’s Beach Resort, Mahabalipuram. 138 PwMS, caregivers & volunteers joined for the day. The bus ride for the members from the office to the venue point was enjoyable along the scenic beaches that stretched along the road. The program started with a welcome note by Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez, Hon. Secretary & some refreshing beverages. BNY Mellon volunteers conducted fun games for kids & adults. A sumptuous lunch was served which consisted of different vegetarian and non-vegetarian items. After lunch, everyone gathered near the beach and played various games, for which many prizes were handed out. This was followed by high tea. The ended with members and caretakers enjoying the beach with the help of volunteers.

The Annual General Meeting for April 2021 to March 2022 took place on Saturday 27 August 2022 at the Bosch Lunch Room. The program started with a welcome speech by Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez, Hon. Secretary; she further presented the Annual Report on the activities of the Chennai Chapter. The balance sheet and income & expenditure statement for the year was presented by Mr Ashokan, Hon. Chairperson of the chapter. The accounts were passed, proposed by Mrs. Dolly Khanna and seconded by Mrs. Usha Sivakumar. A general discussion took place to decide what programme should be held to highlight the 25 years of the chapter. The programme ended with high tea with about 50 members & their caretakers.

The monthly Face to Face Meeting for the month of July 2022 took place on Saturday 30 July, 2022 at the Bosch Lunch Room. The program began with a session about ayurvedic treatment and its benefits for MS by Dr. Vijayanthi from Sri Rajashymala Ayush Vaidyasala. This was followed by games conducted by BNY Mellon volunteers, birthday celebrations of members and high tea. 45 members and caretakers participated in the monthly meeting.

The Marina beach in Chennai was made accessible to differently abled citizens. From December 27 to January 2, On Tuesday (28.12.2021), Minister K N Nehru, Mr. Udhayanidhi Stalin MLA was joined by a number of other ministers, MPs, and MLAs in inaugurating the beach access. Our MSSI Chennai Chapter members participated and also stated that provisions for permanent accessibility to the beaches should be made. #chennai #marina #beach #differentlyabledcitizen #ramp

On 6^th March 2021, MSSI Chennai Chapter organized a Musical Fest –Live Broadcast from the studio Pioneer Music gym with team “Aarohi”. Our one of the Advocacy program, to create awareness about Multiple Sclerosis among music lovers.

Aarohi is a band of singers bound together by a common passion for music and community service both raising awareness and Fundraising.

The theme of the Musical Fest/Day – Retro Bollywood & South Indian Musical hits.

The vocalist of the day – Mrs. Vidhya, Mrs, Priya, Mrs Renu, Mr, Bala and Mr, Suri etc,

This show was organized, in raising awareness about Multiple Sclerosis irrespective of Pandemic, online. MSSI Chennai Chapter, Hon. Chairperson – Mrs.Ann Gonsalvez gave a talk about Multiple Sclerosis and MSSI’s role and its functioning

“Sometimes Music is the only Medicine the heart and Soul needs” – In that way, all our MS friends and other participants enjoyed the show, and the necessary awareness was created. Total views were more than 648.                 

On March 1^st 2020, MSSI Chennai Chapter participated in the awareness programme – Racefor7 organized by ORDI – Organization for Rare Diseases India.

ORDI ( non-profit )  is a national umbrella organization representing the collective voice of all patients with rare diseases in India. Racefor7 symbolically represents the 7000 rare diseases in the world with 7000 people running for 7000 meters.

Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez, Hon. Chairperson addressed the crowd by explaining about Multiple Sclerosis.

The theme for this year was – “I Care for Rare”.

The Chief Guest of the day was the Disability Commissioner – Mr. Johny Tom Varghese.

As MS is one the rare disease, our MS persons along with their caregivers, volunteers & students walked/ran showing our solidarity to support the rare disease group.

The participants were happy that they ran/ walked for the cause of creating awareness.

MSSI Chennai Chapter 1^st group therapy session in the Brain Lab was held” on 29/2/2020. An expected event, fortunately, falls on the unexpected day “Brain Lab Group therapy  – 1^st session” on 29^th February –  the leap day.

Let’s Break the Stigma – Give importance to Mental Health as same as Physical Health.

The session started with the welcome address given by Mrs. Ann Gonsalvez, The Hon. Chairperson of MSSI Chennai Chapter.

The group therapy session was handled by the Resource person, Dr. Ravi Samuel and his two trainees, Mrs. Kavya and Mrs. Gayathri.

Dr. Ravi Samuel one of the Chennai’s eminent psychotherapist’s, who has over 20 years’ experience in treating people with emotional, behavioural, psychological, psychiatric problems, corporate mental health, etc. He has had professional training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy by Mr. Allan Davidson, Cognitive Behavior Therapist at Dept. of Clinical Neurology, Institute of Neurology and National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London.

He started the session by giving a brief introduction about, How MS affects the Brain.

• Cognition gets affected for the MS Person i.e., Memory, Concentration and Attention.
• Thinking- Thought process gets affected MS Person starts to connect everything in an emotional way.
• MS Person’s lacks of Executive function ie. Information processing and decision making.

Therefore, brain lab will focus on – Brain function, Executive function and Thinking.

The assessment was done to the patients and caregivers to know their level of brain functioning, with several exercises both lingual and written.

The session came to a happy ending by having a delicious Lunch.