Prabhav: Making an Impact!

Prabhav (Sanskrit: प्रभाव, prabhav, meaning “Impact”) is an NGO founded by Praachi Sony and Bhavna Agarwal in October 2020, and they came up with the name by combining the first few words of their names. Made by just two friends coming together, wanting to bring a change in society, Prabhav’s main focus is on Mental Health Welfare. Both the founders are in their early 20s, with a bold dream and a will that needed direction.

Founders, Bhavna Agarwal (Left) and Praachi Sony (Right)

The aim is to make an environment where people can come together to openly talk about mental health issues, erasing the stigma attached to it and making them aware of opportunities available in academia to ensure mental peace.

A step towards education for all

In the last couple of years due to the pandemic, it was like the world got paused and no one was prepared for what was to come next. The roads were silent, several people lost their jobs and what was a journey to success, turned into a battle for survival for many. Our education system was unprepared to shift learning and teaching into an online mode. The progress was slow and it affected everyone. Not just physically and financially, but also mentally and emotionally. The average stress levels increased and people started approaching their breaking points. Sadly, our society lacks an efficient kind of stress relief and management system.

Mental health is still an ignored topic in our societies. Mental health issues aren’t given near as much priority as physical health issues. One of the biggest hurdles one has to face is being unable to express themselves. Some subtle hints and signals are not always coherent to others and most of the time calls for help from people suffering, are left unheard. The people who do want to do something about it, lack the proper knowledge and are often times unable to respond properly to a loved one going through some kind of mental health issue.

How kindness can change the world

One of the major factors behind the formation of this NGO was, how the lockdown and pandemic have exposed the unpreparedness and inefficiencies of society as a whole. We all deal with struggles, fighting our inner demons, and not even the people closest to us have any clue about it whatsoever. Sometimes help is just a call away, but people aren’t able to build up the courage to ask for it. Some are blessed enough to have someone by their side, to tell them that it’s going to be alright. But some are not as lucky. The team at Prabhav is made up of a bunch of people who are willing to go the extra mile to be that person.

When Bhavna came up with the idea, she sent a letter to Praachi, expressing her desire to start an NGO. Having some prior experience from working in other NGOs, Bhavna already had a starting buff and Praachi’s bold and confident nature is what the idea needed for a kick-start. We have all gone through these struggles and experienced these battles, but together we can choose to make sure that the people after us don’t need to go through the same. There is a lot that one would need to do to bring some actual change in society but no matter where the objective takes us, as long as the final displacement is in the right direction, everything is alright.

New year distribution drive

Ever since its formation, the objectives of the NGO have been to increase awareness of education opportunities and take steps to reform the thinking of people when it comes to talking about Mental health.

Many events have been organized so far by the Prabhav team, which include talks, workshops, distribution drives, creating support groups and much more.

Interactive Art therapy with Art expression by Bhavna Agarwal, Jyoti Sony and others with things that denote people in your life with Ms. Prachi Dokania: The art therapist

What is the ocean if not millions and gazillions of tiny water droplets? What is a rainbow if not millions of water molecules in the air, separating light into those 7 colours? Life is not a moment, but a collection of millions of breaths and heartbeats. The journey has just begun. There’s a lot more to go, many more goals to achieve, and many more people to reach. One step at a time. Every single impact no matter how small or insignificant it may look from the outside, as long as it comes from the heart, it’s still an impact nonetheless

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." - Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore