In a world bereft with new situations and new normal, a group of young people and new organisations showed resilience during pandemic and have adopted the role of healers.
Pravah, a civil society organisation working with young people runs a youth leadership and social entrepreneur programme called ‘Changelooms‘. Changelooms invites young people interested in being change makers and building their own social enterprise to enroll for a year-long programme to gain skills to sustain their social enterprises.
During the pandemic, the Changeloom fellows across states realised the need to support their communities and show how hope is born through compassion and empathy. The new normal of COVID also taught these young change makers and their new organisations new ways of survival and resilience in the face of multiple odds.
In these situations, 6 Changeloomers across more than 6 states are joining hands to rebuild India by supporting vulnerable communities gain livelihood, access healthcare and daily rations.
All Dreams Foundation, Anvarat Foundation, GramUrja, I am Well Being, Atma Prakash and Samaveshak Samajik Vikas Sansthan began these efforts through an online fundraising campaign called ‘Art Aid’. The uniqueness of the fundraiser is that through this, the Changeloomers are collaborating and supporting artists to gift art products as a show of gratitude to donors. Every donation over INR 500 (15 USD) gets some handmade goodies from collaborating artists. These include :
- “Come back to yourself, often,” a Mind Ki Care Journal by Aatmaprakash
- Set of 10 postcards of art and poems by The Alipore Post and Compassion Contagion
- An upside-down portrait by Atypical Advantage- a platform for artists with disabilities
- A tote bag full of art goodies by Compassion Contagion
“Art has the power to render sorrow beautiful, make loneliness a shared experience, and transform despair into hope. “-Brené Brown
That is precisely what these Changeloomers are doing. Through the Art Aid fundraiser they want to transform despair into hope and turn the devastating tragedy caused by the pandemic into a collective healing experience.
The fundraiser is being run in collaboration with Compassion Contagion, Atypical Advantage + The Alipore Post and is live on the online fundraising platform Milaap.
In the past 17 months these Changeloomers have been able to work to ensure:
- dry ration support to women, daily wage labourers who lost their work
- provide mental health support to children, adolescents and adults from marginalised communities
- free medical consultation, vaccination drives, mental health counseling
- provide COVID safety kits to frontline workers in rural areas
- provide oxygen support to below poverty line patients
- build awareness on vaccine hesitancy
We request you all to join this endeavour by young people to re-build India and contribute to the collective journey of hope and healing. With every donation, you’ll help communities recover.
To know more write to avarna.ojha@pravah.org or visit the link here – https://milaap.org/fundraisers/rebuilding-post-covid-india
Introducing The Changeloomers
Prarthana Sharma is a Changeloomer from the September 2020 batch. She is a practicing psychologist for the past 7 years and is empanelled with IIM, Indore. As a founder and director of a 4-year-old NPO named Aatma Prakash Foundation, she endeavors to offer emotional support to those in distress with acceptance, respect, and empathy.
She is currently working with 20+ government and private schools in Delhi and Indore and an ecosystem of 248+ young & aspiring psychologists who have received training with the organization.
Anvarat Foundation founded by Manas Mohan and Shweta Shukla in 2015 works to provide equal opportunity through quality healthcare, skill based education and dignified employment.
Through their COVID response programme they are working to support women for regeneration of livelihood in rural and urban slums along with setting up COVID care centres at rural level to isolate and treat asymptomatic and mild COVID cases. They have also undertaken free distribution of masks, nutrition supplements, dry ration and vaccine awareness and inoculation drives.
Ravi Chauhan and Nishant Narayanan, founders of All Dreams Foundation that works to change the lives of young boys and girls in the rural parts of India, currently focused in Mumbai and Karnataka, by empowering them to develop skills and knowledge to escape their disadvantageous backgrounds through Rugby and Football. Under covid relief, they have provided dry ration, health and sanitising awareness to 200 families.
Shaila Yadav, founder of Samaveshak Samajavik Vikas Sanashthan has supported people of the nomadic tribal family with ration and has also worked to provided livelihood of these people.
Pallavi Singh and Akansha Chandele, members of I am Well Being are part of the Changelooms programme. I Am Wellbeing is an organization of mental health professionals dedicated to providing mental health support to vulnerable children and young people living in adverse conditions.
I Am Wellbeing started a helpline to support the mental wellbeing of the citizens in 2020 when the first wave of COVID hit India. After 3 months of operation, the helpline started providing support to people who have experienced loss due to COVID and supported the Delhi Government’s initiative of plasma donation.
In 9 months, they were able to reach out to 80,000+ families and trained 1000+ counsellors in providing mental health support. After the closing of the helpline, the organisation started its initiative to provide consistent trauma-informed social-emotional learning support to children from marginalised communities.
Collaborative Gifts
Mind Ki Care Journal
This journal is created with an intention to prioritize mental health and allow for people to share without the fear of being judged. It is intricately designed using four major approaches to psychology so that one can reflect and discover themselves a little more. https://www.aatmaprakash.com/shop
Postcards of Art and Poems
It is conceived by Compassion Contagion and lovingly curated by The Alipore Post- featuring some of the finest poets and artists. Their art and poetry will help you heal and bring some joy and hope in these dark times.
Upside down portrait from Atypical Advantage
Ajay’s life turned upside down after a fatal Bike accident & post the trauma he channelized his energy into Art. He has perfected the skill of upside-down Painting which tricks the brain into painting what is exactly in front of the eyes instead of leveraging one own imagination of what a part must look like. Check here for more info – https://atypicaladvantage.in/arts/upside-down-portrait/188
All images have been provided by the author.