Pakistan Stammering Association

2nd Support Group Meeting in Islamabad

The Pakistan Stammering Association held its second support group meeting in Islamabad on the 2nd of March, 2008. There were a total of 3 individuals present. I must say that I was feeling a bit confused as this was the first support group meeting organized solely by myself - but the presence of such nice and motivated individuals really helped me to gain confidence and everything went very smoothly.

I had planned some things for today (Thanks to Julia for that) and I'm so happy that everyone participated in everything. We started with a brief introduction about Pakistan Stammering Association and Support Groups. Then we had a breathing session for 10 mins. After that there were introductions. Then a brief explanation about stammering, and we all shared our experiences as being stammerers and what techniques do we use to deal with our stammer. Participants shared their views about stammering, and their ideas about how to gain control over our stammering. One participant, Shoaib, also shared his experience with a speech therapist and how he was helped by her. The we talked about our feared situations, and I was happy to see the participants talking so openly about their speech difficulties and feared situations - One of the main objectives of the support groups.

The next topic was about using telephone. We talked about our experiences while using the telephone, and again everyone talked very openly about their difficulties when they are talking on the phone and how we can be more confident while speaking on the phone. Then we had the fun part - The Harrison's workshop. We picked up random pieces of paper, and talked on the topic written on the paper for 2 min (per person). I think next time we will try to give more time to it.

Due to lack of time we weren't able to set challenges until next meeting. I will email to the participants some challenges that I have in mind and you can furthur add your ideas in the list.

There were a few documents distributed among the participants.

1. The meeting plan and contents.
2. What happens at the self-help group meeting? (Courtesy: Keith Boss, ISA)
3. Information for adults who stammer. (Source: British Stammering Association website)
4. Using the telephone. (Source: British Stammering Association website)
5. Message to a stutterer, by Joseph Sheehan

Due to lack of time, we could not discuss "Message to a stutterer". We will be talking on that on the next support group meeting.

I would like to thank some people here, apart from the particpants, who really helped to make this event possible.

1. Mr. Aziz Bolani, Serena Hotel Islamabad
2. Mr. Habib Ashraf, Serena Hotel Islamabad
3. Julia Irani
4. Keith Boss

I would especially like to thank the Serena Hotel Management for providing us a magnificant hall and refreshments, all free of cost. Thanks to all the staff at the hotel, they were really helpful and even gave us extra time as we started half an hour late.

Hope to see you guys soon again and just keep moving forward!

Hammad