Goa SHG Meets in Panaji

Left to Right: Prajot, Rahul, Babaji and Harish

Today, we decided to meet in the capital city Panaji for
the first time. Our new friend from Mapusa (Near Panaji), with his enthusiastic
efforts and zeal to attend an SHG meeting, arranged a venue for holding the SHG
meeting. A few more people from Panaji were expected, but couldn’t turn up in
the end. Finally, it was four of us who met –

1.
Prajot (From Mapusa)

2.
Rahul

3.
Babaji

4.
Harish

Introductions

We started with introductions and sharing our stammering
stories. Rahul, Babaji and I shared about our backgrounds, hobbies and stammering.
Prajot, who was with us in a SHG meeting for the first time also talked about
his stammering, about the experience with his speech therapists and how he came
across TISA, kept following the blogs and was fascinated by the idea of Self
Help.

Support and
Contradict

Next we had a communication game – Support and
Contradict. Each one was given a topic on which the speaker can either choose
to speak for or against. But as he spoke, one of the listeners would clap,
after which he should shift from his current stand. (If for then go against,
and if against then go for the topic). This was both challenging and fun. The
most important thing to learn in this was quick thinking and transitions from
one point to another.

Guess the Drawing

We then had a fun game. One participant had to whisper
something into another, who had to draw what was whispered in his ears. The others
had to guess what was whispered in his ears by looking at the drawing. This was
a fun game, where we had to communicate using drawings.

Presentations

We then had mini-presentations of 3 minute each per
speaker. The speaker had to could choose topic of his comfort. One member timed
the speaker. At the end of all four presentations, we evaluated each others strengths
and areas of improvement.

Practice Rounds

Finally, sitting in a circle, we practiced – Bouncing, Block
Correction (Cancellation) and Easy onset techniques.

As we reached the end of the meeting, we had casual
discussions about stammering, our experiences and shared a few stories with
each other. We also discussed what activities we could do in our meetings to
come. A day outing was also something which was discussed, for which the hunt
for a suitable place will begin and will be organized depending on the
availability of maximum members.