Stories of Skill, Recovery

At 20, Munni has already spent seven years navigating mental health difficulties that others around her struggled to understand. She became intensely suspicious of people, heard voices that others could not hear, talked and laughed to herself and, at times, left home unexpectedly or reacted aggressively.

Her family was frightened and searching for an explanation. They initially understood her distress through a spiritual lens and took her to religious and traditional healers. When these efforts did not improve her condition, Munni was supported to reach a hospital for the first time. With appropriate treatment, she made significant progress in her recovery.

Yet as one barrier began to lift, another became visible: stigma. When potential employers learned about her mental health history, they were reluctant to offer her work. The judgement came before any fair assessment of what she could learn or contribute.

Moner Kaj gave Munni her first employment opportunity. The income matters, but the meaning goes beyond money. She can now contribute towards the cost of her own treatment and buy personal items, including cosmetics and other things she enjoys. These may appear to be ordinary purchases, but they represent something fundamental: choice. They allow a young woman to participate in decisions about her own life rather than remain completely dependent on others.

Munni’s journey shows that treatment can open a door, but recovery also needs opportunity. When a person is trusted, supported and judged by her contribution rather than by a mental health label, she can begin to reclaim confidence, dignity and a future shaped by her own choices.

Tailoring demands concentration, measurement and care. Yunus Sharif, now 56, had spent years developing those abilities. But during a prolonged mental health crisis, persistent low mood, hearing voices and almost complete loss of sleep overwhelmed his daily life. He experienced recurrent suicidal thoughts and survived two suicide attempts.

As his condition worsened, Yunus lost his job and could no longer support his family. Appropriate mental health treatment helped him recover, but treatment did not remove the stigma waiting outside the clinic. Potential employers were reluctant to hire him. Some assumed that a person with a history of mental illness would not be able to sew properly or would make mistakes with measurements.

Their doubt was not based on a fair test of his work. It was based on a label.

Moner Kaj gave Yunus the opportunity to return to tailoring. The platform recognised the skill that stigma had obscured and created a route back into paid employment. Today, he earns a stable income and again contributes financially to his family.

His story challenges a damaging assumption: mental illness does not erase knowledge, craftsmanship or the capacity to work. Recovery is not only about reducing symptoms. It also involves being welcomed back into social and economic life, having one’s contribution valued and regaining the dignity of being able to provide.

Yunus should be measured by the quality of his work — not by the most difficult chapter of his life.

An earring, necklace or bracelet may appear small, but its creation requires attention, judgement and many deliberate choices. For Nishi, handmade jewellery has become part of a new chapter — one in which her creativity is visible again.

For years, she lived with persistent low mood, sleeplessness, hearing voices that others could not hear and difficulty concentrating on her work. She often felt worthless and guilty. These experiences affected not only how she felt, but also how she saw her own place in the world.

Nishi later received treatment at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bangladesh and made significant progress in her recovery. She then joined Moner Kaj, where she creates handmade earrings, necklaces, bangles and bracelets.

Through this work, Nishi has regained confidence and achieved greater financial independence. She is not simply producing attractive objects. She is making decisions, applying skill, completing work and seeing that work valued by others.

Her jewellery challenges the prejudice that mental health difficulties erase talent or contribution. When customers encounter Nishi’s work first, they meet a maker — someone with ideas, ability and a right to earn. Moner Kaj helps make that identity visible.

Nishi’s journey demonstrates what can become possible when timely treatment, continuing support and meaningful employment come together: not a life defined by illness, but a life in which creativity, income and dignity can grow.

She is often introduced in relation to her son, but her own skill deserves to be seen. Raju’s mother is a kantha artisan — a woman whose hands can turn cloth and thread into something useful, beautiful and deeply connected to Bengali household tradition.

Raju lives with schizophrenia, and the cost of his treatment became a heavy burden for the family. With very limited income, his mother repeatedly faced an impossible choice: should the money be used for food, or for the care her son needed? The constant pressure caused immense stress and anxiety.

Moner Kaj recognised that supporting a caregiver’s livelihood can help an entire household. The platform gave Raju’s mother an opportunity to earn by using her existing skill in sewing traditional kantha.

This is not charity. It is paid recognition of work she already knows how to do. Her earnings help support the family while making it more possible to continue Raju’s treatment. They also give her greater financial agency in a situation that had previously been defined by scarcity and impossible choices.

Her story expands the meaning of mental health inclusion. Support should not focus only on the individual receiving treatment. Caregivers also carry financial, emotional and practical burdens, often with little recognition. When they gain dignified livelihood opportunities, treatment becomes more sustainable and the whole family gains room to breathe.

A kantha carries many stitches. In this story, each stitch also carries skill, care and the possibility of a more secure future.