Community Mental Health · Research · Rehabilitation
36 years ofhealing,research &community.
Rooted in Kashmir, SAWAB brings together decades of compassionate care, meaningful research, and community-led healing.
A child rests safely against a caring hand within a softly blended Kashmiri landscape.
Our impact
Care that stays.
A SAWAB milestone
The official inauguration of SAWAB.
A defining moment in our continuing commitment to compassionate, community-rooted mental-health care.
A living field archive
Presence is part of the practice.
Moments of listening, learning and collaboration—held together as one continuing movement of care.
Care compass
Explore how one need can open into many forms of care.
Move through the five areas to see how clinical practice, research, learning and community life stay connected.
01 / 05
Clinical
SAWAB advances culturally sensitive mental-health care by strengthening the people and systems already present in communities, including general clinicians and frontline health workers.
- Identification and management of common mental disorders
- Integrated care through general healthcare systems
- Mental-health support within neurorehabilitation
Our continuing purpose
“Knowledge built through care.
Care strengthened by knowledge.”
To advance evidence-based community mental health while restoring dignity, building capacity and supporting emotional resilience across society.
How care moves
Listening becomes knowledge.
Knowledge returns as care.
Two connected pathways show how SAWAB holds community experience and scientific inquiry within one living practice.
01 / Community
A circle wide enough to hold many voices.
Support grows through attentive spaces, local relationships and shared responsibility.
Explore community work ↗
02 / Knowledge
Evidence with roots in lived experience.
Research, learning and follow-up turn experience into knowledge that can serve communities again.
Enter the library ↗Our journey
A journey of hope, people and impact.
From a simple conversation to a growing movement for mental health.
Different times.
New challenges.
The same belief —
that mental health matters.
Origins
Listening before building
Care began with presence, conversation and trust.
Early evidence
A warning on drug use
Research identified an emerging crisis before it became widely visible.
Knowledge carried forward
Defeat Depression Programme
Bringing knowledge and care to those who needed it.
Systems and advocacy
Care moves into public life
A community programme grew into a call for better systems.
Long continuity
Returning to Waltengo Nar
A crisis response became a relationship across two decades.
Public and scientific exchange
Local evidence travels
Kashmir’s questions entered public discussion and global research forums.
Community systems
Access becomes a shared agenda
Partnerships connected clinicians, educators, civil society and community leaders.
The current chapter
Lived experience leads
Manuals, films and child-focused training turn knowledge into practical support.
From the press archive
A public record of care, change and continuity.
Reporting across three decades preserves how Kashmir spoke about mental health—and how the work kept moving forward.
Explore all press stories
Mental hospital shrinks as patients multiply
An early record of rising patient numbers, crowded wards and the need for trained staff, public awareness and humane mental-health care.
Recognition of a breakthrough research programme
Coverage of research presented at the 12th World Congress of Biological Psychiatry on PTSD treatment response, recovery and resilience.
Kashmir: Faith and Psychiatry
A special report on the meeting point of clinical care, faith, cultural meaning and community support in Kashmir's mental-health landscape.
Conference charts roadmap for community-based mental healthcare
Coverage of a multi-institutional conference on decentralised, culturally relevant and stigma-free mental-health services in Kashmir.
Scars of war
A field report from Srinagar's psychiatric hospital on conflict-related distress, the rising need for care and the people working inside a stretched system.
Addressing mental-health challenges in Kashmir
An overview of adolescent mental health and SAWAB's practical self-help modules for students, parents and teachers, including anxiety and depression.
SAWAB Archive / Programme record
Defeat Depression Programme and community education archive
Work in focus
Programmes built for the realities of place.
Capacity building1998–2003
Defeat Depression Programme
A strategic response to the shortage of mental-health professionals, equipping general clinicians to recognise and manage common mental disorders.
01 View this area of workTrauma research & careSince February 2005
Waltengo Nar long-term follow-up
A rare population-wide, long-term engagement with survivors, linking compassionate follow-up with knowledge for disaster mental health.
02 View this area of workSchool mental healthCurrent initiative
MISSION SHAFQAT
A collaboration with Kashmir Welfare Trust focused on emotional education, prevention and resilience from the grassroots level.
03 View this area of workFrom the SAWAB Library
An archive becoming a living repository.
Research, publications and records developed through clinical, academic and community engagement.
01
A Brief Introduction to SAWAB
A 29-page institutional record of 36 years of community mental health, clinical outreach, research, capacity building, rehabilitation, advocacy and collaborative care in Kashmir.
View library record02
Psychiatric Disorders Among Children in Kashmir
A study examining the psychological impact of conflict on children in Kashmir, led by Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Margoob.
View library record03
Waltengo Nar Snowstorm: Long-term Survivor Follow-up
A two-decade follow-up of survivors of the February 2005 Waltengo Nar snowstorm, combining sustained care with trauma and disaster mental-health inquiry.
View library recordWorking through collaboration
Care is stronger when institutions learn together.
SAWAB’s work has grown through relationships across healthcare, education, rehabilitation and community life.
Explore affiliations
VMSVoluntary Medicare Society+
The first NGO identified in SAWAB’s brief as adopting its holistic rehabilitation model, bringing mental-health care, neurorehabilitation, family wellbeing and livelihood support together.
IMHANS-KIMHANS-K / GMC Srinagar+
A partner in medical education programmes, mental-health care protocols and postgraduate training in Kashmir.
SKIMSDepartment of Psychiatry, SKIMS Medical College Bemina+
A partner in developing and sharing medical education programmes and practical care protocols.
KWTKashmir Welfare Trust+
Collaboration supporting vulnerable families and the school mental-health initiative MISSION SHAFQAT.
CICHINAR International+
Collaboration in community psychosocial transformation, child development, youth education, Psychological First Aid and resilience building.
Mental health beyond hospitals
Healing belongs in the social fabric of everyday life.
SAWAB’s community approach brings mental-health knowledge into places people already trust: schools, rehabilitation centres, community organisations and faith institutions.
The work is not framed around passive recipients. It is built with clinicians, educators, families and local leaders as active partners in care.
Read about community work
The next chapter
SAWAB’s stated direction is to strengthen scientific knowledge generation, advance evidence-based community interventions and foster emotional resilience across all segments of society.
People behind SAWAB
Clinical insight.
Community commitment.
MM
Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Margoob
Founder
HM
Dr. Huda Mushtaq
SAWAB Team Member
SI
Dr. Syed Bushra Imtiyaz
Volunteer Psychiatrist
AR
Aeiman Rafiq
Clinical Psychologist
IM
Dr. Imtiyaz Mansoor
Sr. Consultant Psychiatrist
FM
Dr. Fayaz Ahmad Malik
Scientist
DM
Dr. Dhuha Mushtaq
Scientist
TM
Tariq Margoob
Educationist
MA
Mr. Manzoor Ahmad
SAWAB Team Member
RM
Rayees Ahmad Mir
SAWAB Team Member