Aachol Foundation is a social youth-led organization advocating mental health in Bangladesh. We envision a society where mental health is recognized as an essential part of overall well-being. Mental health is not solely an individual responsibility but is a product of community conditions. We thrive with determination, dedication, and passion to build up a community that is aware of mental health, promotes mental health breaking and overcoming all stigma, and living with compassion. We dream of a better healthy social environment for the future generation and work every day towards making that dream come true. We are ambitious to bring down the suicide rate of youth to zero. We are a bunch of youth who are determined to make this possible in our country, not to lose someone at a very young age due to suicide.
Mental health affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Striving towards our vision, our mission is to create mental health awareness in our community and transform how our community promotes mental health. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. However, our young generation, the future of our country, is mostly affected. Unfortunately, the hostile environment regarding mental health in our society makes it harder for them to survive. We, the Aachol Foundation, aim to help and provide counseling to this vulnerable population - the youth, who are suffering from mental health problems. Our target is not only to cure someone from a delicate mental health situation but to prevent that from happening to someone. We believe that prevention is better than cure. Our approach is to get to the root of the problem and nip it in the bud. We want to motivate the young generation, deviate them from the path of depression. The young generation, when suddenly step into this cruel enough world, it is not easy for them to fit in. There come many kinds of depression due to the lack of people who understand them, lack of confidence, lack of motivation, and so on. We plan to keep them motivated, train them for developing different kinds of skills that will help them to stand out in the world of job hunting or career opportunities. Needless to say, mental health issues are taboo in our country. We established our mission to change that notion and talk about it more and more. We promote mental health awareness and promote skill development of university students especially. We want to make this organization a larger safe platform for youth.
In today's world, technology is thriving fast, and with many many advantages, there are some serious issues we face. As our focus is the vulnerable young generation, we find them facing different uncomfortable situations using the internet and social media. Day by day, the internet is becoming more available and easy to access, and with that, some cybercrimes too. Aachol foundation has found that many young people are being victims of these crimes like hacking personal social media accounts, online harassment, cyberbullying, etc. which leave the victims devastated and in depression. So, to help them, the Aachol foundation offers cyber support and also promotes cyber safety awareness.
As we all know, mental health is a multifactorial topic, we thrive to work on many aspects of it to certainly achieve the goal of creating a country where youth are not lost to suicide. Aside from giving counseling, promoting, and arranging skill development training/workshops, we also work on improving the general well-being of the youth, by organizing mindfulness programs to help them to find their inner peace.
Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. The main goal behind building Aachol foundation was to help and provide guidance to teenagers and students so that they can get support to get better mental health. Aachol Foundation was founded on 25th April 2019 by Mr. Tansen Rose, who is an inspiring graduate of Dhaka University. During his university life he has observed how young generations suffering from mental health issues and couldn’t sharing with anyone. Which is leading this generation into depression, anxiety, suicide, low self-esteem so on. These incidents devastated him and made him evaluate, the ongoing situation of this generation’s mental health in Bangladesh. He grasped that as a nation how much this generation needs mental health support, because in the long run they are the pillar for future progressed Bangladesh. He started to research and found that according to (World Health Organization 2014; Mashreky et al., 2013; Shahnaz et al., 2017; Begum et al., 2017a) approximately one million people commit suicide every year worldwide 60% of all cases of suicide in the world occur in Asia and 39.6 per 100,000 in Bangladesh. From experiencing the incident to seeing the statistics triggered him to come up with a ground-breaking solution which may solve and create awareness for the students of this generation’s assorted mental health issues. Tansen Rose felt that how most of the time families do not disclosing the true nature of the act of any mental instabilities, for fear social stigma also the search for the association of mental disorder is poor. Finally, he concluded every research regarding this mental health situation issues by making a foundation named Aachol.
Encourage and guide every student to take care of their mental health Train the youth of our country with useful skills Remove career-related frustration of students
Currently, there are 13 departments at Aachol Foundation. The departments are-
Human Resource Management, in short, is called the HRM department which has several duties to do in Aachol Foundation. The HRM department plays a vital role. This department works for recruiting, hiring, deploying, and managing the other members of the team. Recruiting is the major work of this department. They check every department whether they are satisfied with their work or other things. If any department needs extra members, they search for suitable candidates for that department by advertisements on many social platforms.No one can enter any department without an interview. They also work in documents where they write for websites as a website blog writer. They provide different kinds of emails to other members such as termination letters, certificates, and recommendation letters, too. They collect all information from members and make different kinds of sheets based on criteria. They specifically make a rule for all members and officially update with time, which is known as CODE OF CONDUCT. HRM department helps other departments if they need any kind of help and also ensures some matters such as changing departments, complaining against members, and leaving for valued reasons. They notice all member's activities.
The Aachol Foundation's operation team is one of the most important teams due to its creative contributions to the organization. Additionally, this team observes and reports on the daily activities of the other divisions. This team's primary responsibility is to assimilate the activities of the associated teams. The operation team is constantly updating the foundation's activities. If any members are missing any information as a result of their absence from the meeting, they can obtain it. Even if a team member wishes to sample the cuisine of another team, they can communicate with the operations team. The operation teams assist them in achieving their goal of team change. It keeps track of the daily activities of the respective teams, allowing them to collaborate. Additionally, any conflicts that arise between volunteers and executive members are resolved with the assistance of the operation team. When interns request leave, this team collaborates with the appropriate teams to fill the vacancy. Even in the event of a subsequent emergency, they exchange volunteers.
Creative Art is an important part of the Aachol Foundation. Because the Aachol Foundation wants to use the creative arts to enhance the personal and professional skills of young people. So that young people can meaningfully improve their respective futures through creative arts. Aachol Foundation wants young people to develop their thoughts and consciousness through creative art. That is why Aachol Foundation invented creative art.
At present, Aachol Foundation is working on the following issues to increase the creativity of the youth,
✪ Infographics, ✪ Banner card ✪ Poster card ✪ Poster design, ✪ Image editing, ✪ Notepad, ✪ Content Related Visual make, ✪ Certificates etc.
One of the most important secretariat of the Aachol Foundation is Secretariat of Outreach and Publications overall activities of Aachol Foundation accomplished through the work of publicity and publication. At the same time, it works to establish relationship between various organizations and institutions to increase the scope of work of the Foundation. The journey of this important secretariat started in April 2021. It has been moving forward at a great pace since the beginning of the journey.
The way this unit works ✓ Working in collaboration with various organizations and institutions. So far, several organizations have joined through Outreach & Publication team.The Aachol Foundation also plans to work with a number of organizations, including ADD International, soon. ✓ Making MoU or Memorandum of Understanding ✓ Maintain communication with special guests ✓ Preparation of reports for surveys conducted by Aachol Foundation etc. The national daily Kaalerkantha has been added as a permanent media partner of the Aachol Foundation. Overall, The Secretariat of Outreach and Publications is undoubtedly one of the most important teams in that arena!
The Special Care Unit provides counseling services. This unit sometimes arranges webinars to create mental health awareness. This unit is usually managed by 2 teams: Counselor of Secretariat of Special Care: This team consists of counselors who provide counseling services to clients. Coordinator of Special Care: This team coordinates between clients and counselors.
Aachol foundation has a research and analysis unit as well. This unit has a significant role to play in the Aachol foundation. Our foundation works with mental health issues, to do that we need to run surveys and research among all people especially young generations. The research and analysis unit carries out all kinds of tasks related to surveys and research. This unit executes surveys on a definite topic and spreads the survey form through social media platforms. After analyzing this unit, publish the survey through a press conference as well as on our official Facebook page. In addition, the Aachol foundation conducted two surveys successfully with the research and analysis unit. Many news portals and television channels e.g. Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, Ittefaq, Daily Samakal, news Bangla 24, Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh Protidin, Daily Sun, Daily Inqilab, etc. featured the surveyed result with the people of our country through their articles and reports. Recently Daffodil University collaborated with the Aachol foundation, they will be using research and analysis team data for their research paper
Mending minds is an open platform, where people can express their thoughts without hesitation. Whether it is good or bad, if it is a topic outside of mental health-related, he can also share it. No one will judge them in these matters. And many times it will try to give solutions to many mental problems. I am quoting a story. A few days ago I became hopeless with my personal life. Family, friends, none of this was pulling me. It was as if I had left everything and gone somewhere else. Suicide thoughts kept coming. I left home several times and wandered here and there helplessly. I can see the end of my life. Then I spent some time on Google and social media to relax my mind. Because of this, I could not forget my frustration, loneliness, boredom, painful events in my life, or even share some of the articles and websites. Then suddenly a Facebook group called "Mending Minds" came in front of me. I got a few more groups, but it seemed the best. Then from here, I was able to overcome my frustration and above all loneliness and frustration with free thought sharing and consulting promotion. For which I can thank and appreciate Mending Minds. Maybe mental health professionals, alternative practitioners, parenting, students, businessmen, or anyone can share their stories whenever they want. It can be called a living library. From where only inspiration will come. Encouragement will come, faith will be strong, morale will increase, energy will be boosted.
The website team works with different aspects of our website such as web-designing and writing on the website.
Videos create an impression that is ten times higher than the impression created by a regular image. This is why the video content management team plays a vital role for the Aachol Foundation. The main purpose of our "Video content management team" is to create interesting content related to the mental health of the youth. Moreover, the young generation can be enthusiastic about our foundation, contact us in any need and come forward as a volunteer. They have an expert team where everyone cooperates in jobs like making videos, video editing, video uploading. They get their content from the content writing team and then they make videos on it. They make promotional videos about different programs for all the teams of Aachol Foundation and upload these videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Those videos are about mental health development, cyber security, different types of courses and events. Aachol foundation organizes competitions for all the students in Bangladesh. The videos of those competition programs are also edited and uploaded by them. The video content team focuses on giving a clear idea about Aachol Foundation and also represents information about mental issues. We hope that audiences will get benefits from our content and thereby they will be a part of Aachol.
Planning, creating, and editing web content is the process of content writing. It may include things like writing blog posts and articles, scripts for videos and podcasts, and content for particular platforms like Facebook and other social media sites. Content writing unit is also available at Aachol Foundation. All articles on "mental health" published on the Aachal Foundation's website, Facebook page, and Instagram are written by the team. This team is involved in writing all the Aachal Foundation's webinars, seminars, and recruiting content. Attendees can learn how to convey information more effectively as an intern with the content writing team. Also, I can learn how to create excellent content and video scripts, improve my writing abilities from a marketing standpoint, and acquire knowledge of psychological and mental health problems.
Aachol Foundation is successfully launched on social media platforms- Facebook, Instagram, Linked In. Aachol has a juvenile team that is technologically savvy and experts in digital marketing. The team is engaged in communicating about the ongoing events and creating brand promotion and marketing campaigns for their audiences. More specifically, the webinars, workshops, events, and recruitment advertisements are published through these social media platforms by the team. Amid the pandemic, to stay connected with the community the social media platforms are being brought into play by the organization.
People nowadays spend their free time on social media. Aachol Foundation has a Live team for this purpose. Their primary task is to provide informative live sessions on subjects such as mental health, suicide prevention, and skill development so that people can be aware of these issues and build their skills for their future. Twice a week, it is broadcasted. The host and the guest discuss issues and potential remedies. Commenting allows viewers to share their opinions. Selected attendees can get access to a suitable platform for evaluating the presentation. These abilities, as well as teamwork, anchoring, organization, and leadership, and public speaking skills are practiced through the live sessions.
“Digital is at the core of everything in marketing today—it has gone from ‘one of the things marketing does’ to ‘THE thing that marketing does.’” – Sanjay Dholakia, Former Chief Marketing Officer, Marketo Aachol Foundation has a digital marketing team. This team oversees all promotional strategies for all programs of the Aachol Foundation. Specially the programs of online platforms. Along with these, they also perform group marketing, target audience analysis, social media marketing, and email marketing. SEO, Analytics and boosting related help and guidelines are also provided by this team. Analyzing how much responses they would get before launching any new program or project, as well as another very important aspect, which is the marketing of various workshops, events, and projects conducted by the Aachol Foundation's Digital Marketing team. With its distinctive ideas, this team will assist Aachol Foundation in growing and spreading frequently.
Aachol Foundation is running four ongoing projects-
project awaj is one of the major projects of the Aachol Foundation. The main subject of this project is related to cybercrime & cybersecurity, which raises awareness on various issues of cybersecurity as well as provides legal and psychological assistance to the victims, and the initiative to start this project was taken in January 2021. Aachol Foundation announced the need for ensuring mental health services for Bangladesh citizens. The government of Bangladesh recognizes mental illnesses as among the top ten priority health concerns in the country. If someone is a victim of cybercrime & suffers from mental problems, then this project will help him or her to get out of this situation. This will reduce the number of people suffering from mental problems and people will be aware of their rights. In today's society, Cybersecurity is a big issue for internet users. Every day thousands of people are victims of cyberattacks. The issue is making internet users think. That's why Project Awaj is working on the nature of the cyberattack and what is the way to get rid of it. Moreover, this project is also working to create awareness among the students or youth who are admitting to cyberbullying or do not know about cybercrime and cybersecurity. So, it will be helpful for the students or youth all over our country.
Project Happiness is an important unit of the Aachol Foundation which started its journey in July, 2021 with the aim of motivating people towards happiness. Nowadays, happiness has become materialistic and people now think of getting good results and getting new gifts as happiness. So, when they don't get good results or don't get new gifts, they get frustrated. But in reality the thing called happiness is found through self-knowledge and satisfaction. Originally, the Aachol Foundation launched Project Happiness to help people understand the true meaning of happiness. In this project various webinars, workshops and sessions are organized based on Happiness. By joining these webinars, workshops and sessions, the youth will know the true meaning of happiness as well as how to keep themselves happy by overcoming frustration and also will learn how to be the cause of one's own happiness. Moreover, by attending these sessions, they will be able to learn about happiness from reputed and certified mentors and will also receive a certificate as a reward. For the purpose of informing people about the ways in which they can keep themselves happy, Project Happiness launched its 1st online course called “Mastering The Happiness; Myth To Discover” which ran from 16th September, 2021 to 19th October, 2021. Md Ilyas Kanchan Sir, the only “Certified Happiness Coach” of Bangladesh was present as the mentor in this course.
Aachol Foundation is running three ongoing Chapter-
Aachol Foundation has 4 wings in total and The Home Economic chapter is one of them. This chapter is all about home economics students. The Home Economic chapter started on 1 May 2021. They formed their first official committee on 12 May through a recruitment process. This chapter actually works as an individual club in the college on the behalf of Aachol foundation in order to spread mental health awareness among the student. This chapter organizes different campaigns and long publicity events including an intro video, mental health-related content posts with pictures, encouraging people to join the team, and posting a video about soft skills in order to inform the students about this chapter and Aachol Foundation. The home economic chapter also hosts live session in order to inform students about their mental health and also want to motivate them to seek any kind of mental help from this chapter and AAchol foundation in case if they need any.
The Home Economics Chapter has a team of some energetic, active executive members. They divided all the members into different teams as per their skills. Some of the teams are the Graphics team, content team, communication team. The future plan of The home economic chapter is to acknowledge each and every student of home economics college about Aachol Foundation and this chapter so that they can get any kind of mental support from here.
JNU Chapter is all about the students of Jagannath University (JNU). This is a wing of Aachol Foundation at Jagannath University. This chapter works as a club of Jagannath University. They Independently works with mental health awareness on behalf of the Aachol Foundation. It is a social and non-profit organization dedicated to improving the mental health of students. This chapter began their journey on the first week of July,2021. They worked on a project called Waves of Mental Health Improvement with the assistance of other JNU Chapter Teams. And their subject was what steps may be done to enhance mental wellness. They created 20 mental health awareness infographics. It offers a wide variety of webinars, live shows, events, material, and videography on a variety of mental health subjects. Students at Jagannath University (JNU) can be benefited from the Aachol Foundation's initiatives.
Aachol Foundation arranged an outdoor event named “Depression and Suicide: A Bridge to Hope” on 29 October 2019 at Dhaka University. A lot of students in our country choose the road of suicide to escape from depression. A huge number of people in our country still do not know that depression can be cured and suicide is not a way of doing it. Our event was for those people who wanted to get out of their depression and also for all of the students who wanted to know about handling depression. We want to eradicate the term “suicide” from our nation. Our honorable guests for the event were Golam Rabbani (General secretary of Daksu), Faysal Ahmed Rafi (CEO, Bdlisteners), Dilara Hanif Purnima(Actress), Dr. Mehzabin Haque (Chairman of Psychology Department, Dhaka University).
Aachol Foundation arranged another outdoor event named “Depression and Suicide: A Bridge to Hope” on 19 February 2020 at Shamsunnahar Hall, Dhaka University. This program was also held to create awareness about mental health, depression and to reduce the rate of suicide. Our honorable guests for the event were Monira Rahman (Co-founder of Innovation for Well Being Foundation), Mostak Ahmed Imran (Play Therapist). Some respective personalities shared their stories about coming out of their depression in our program. The stories were shared by A B M Sumon (Actor), Farzana Wahid Shayan (Singer), Shurovi Sobhana (Painter), Nadira Kiron (News Editor, ATN Bangla), and Sohel Mamun (Senior Reporter, Dhaka Tribune).
The team of Aachol Foundation went to a youth carnival arranged by BYLC (Bangladesh Youth Leadership Centre). It was held on 27th and 28th December 2019. On that carnival we gave free counseling to 34 students, we raised awareness among almost 2500 students and gave the floor to about 200 students to share their idea about how to keep our mental health well. We also arranged a quiz in which around 200 students participated. Attending this carnival was a part of our idea about “mental health support.” And our biggest success was that we could help so many students out there on their mental health journey.
Project Be The Linchpin With Aachol organized a 7-Days Training Session for skill Development during February in 2021. Acquiring skills to prepare oneself is an important step to build one's desired career. Nowadays soft skills are a must to secure a career in the corporate world. To provide interactive learning for the young students, Aachol Foundation arranged these consecutive training sessions with seven guest speakers who have expertise in different skills. This online workshop was held from 11 February 2021 to 18 February 2021 via Google meet. It was a paid workshop with minimal cost for the students. The participants were provided with e-certificates for their respective training. The training sessions conducted and its trainers are outlined in the table below-
Day Topic of Training Session Guest speaker Date held 1 Content writing Shahnewaz Al Maruf Former designer at Ijoomla & designer at Themexpert 11.02.2021 2 Digital Marketing Rasheduzzaman Raaz The marketing Rockstar Jr. Strategic Marketing Associate. 12.02.2021 3 Virtual event management Samira Akter Siyam Digital marketing operation manager at Bino Digital 13.02.2021 4 Communication & critical thinking Rumman Ahsan Former supply chain manager at Khaas Food & operations manager at MTailon 14.02.2021 5 Public speaking Jahedul Islam. Medical Officer at Dhaka Medical College & Hospital 15.02.2021 6 Entrepreneurship
Habibur Rahman Jewel Founder & Managing Director, Market Bangla Managing Director, Moonlight Pet Flakes and Pet Strap Industry Ltd. 16.02.2021 7 Professional email writing Samira Akter Siyam Digital marketing operation manager at Bino Digital. 18.02.2021
Through this initiative, we wanted to make a confident and energetic youth group that is capable of doing any kind of task instantly which is essential for the young generation.
Aachol Foundation presented a two days training session on designing essentials using different tools as part of our Project Be The Linchpin with Aachol. Our honorable guests in the session were- Mithila Arman (Secretary, Secretariat of Creative Art, Aachol Foundation) Md. Mushfiqur Rahman (Coordinator, Secretariat of Creative Art, Aachol Foundation) Sajia Iffat (Chieftain, Secretariat of Creative Art, Aachol Foundation) Shahriar Shawon (Chieftain, Secretariat of Creative Art, Aachol Foundation) For the development of our country, it is important for companies to attract both national and international customers. Graphic designing can make that a lot easier. Because a good design can tell a story and we can relate to stories quite easily. That’s why we need good graphic designers in our nation. Our intention for the session was to give basic ideas of graphic designing to students and inspire them to become illustrious graphic designers for their and the country's bright future. In this session, our guests spoke about different kinds of tools that can be utilized for graphic designing in day-to-day life. They explained how choosing the right set of tools can make one’s work productive, creative, and easier. Our speakers also described to the participants why graphics designing is so important.
Video making and editing can be a difficult and tedious job for beginners. Aachol foundation arranged a one-day training session on video content making and editing on 23 June 2021. This one-day session introduced the basic video-making and editing tools to the participants. Our honorable guest for the session was Md. Mushfiqur Rahman Nishat (Co-leader, Secretariat of Creative Art, Aachol Foundation). In today’s world videos are extremely impactful. With the correct techniques and editing secrets, we can effectively deliver any message to anyone across the world. Good quality video content can represent a company, a brand, a city, and even our country. That is why this skill is indispensable for our youth to learn. Through this session, we tried to give some encouragement for their journey ahead.
Aachol Foundation organized an online training session on professional email writing from the Project Be The Linchpin with Aachol on 17 September 2020 via Google meet. This program was a grooming session arranged for Aachol foundation members. People from outside the organization also joined the session through the registration process. All the participants received e-certificates after the session. In the world of digitalization, emails have taken the place of letters as well as a lot of paperwork. Now all professional communications occur through emails. That’s why our future generation needs to learn how to write emails professionally and this session was arranged to teach them all the tips and tricks.
Aachol foundation arranged a one-day online session on “Communication Skill Development” as an initiative of Project Be The Linchpin with Aachol on 24 September 2020. Our guest for the session was Romman Ahsan (Senior Supply Chain Manager, Ifarmer asia, IBA, DU). In this session, the important concepts of communication skills were discussed. Communication skill is an inevitable skill to master in today’s world. But a lot of people face difficulties while communicating with others properly. Thus we gave this topic special importance.
Aachol Foundation's ‘Be The Linchpin with Aachol’ project and UNDP's ‘Movers Program’ collaboratively organized a workshop named "Digital Branding and Employability" on 14 November 2020. The guests were Samira Akhter Siam (General Secretary, Aachol Foundation), Abid Hasan Himel, and Sirajum Munira (Movers facilitator). The workshop focused on the importance of digital branding and professional networks using LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world’s largest platform for professionals to connect, share and learn. It helps people find the right job or internship as well as build and strengthen professional relationships. The guests gave participants a clear idea of how they can open a LinkedIn account, use the account, and perform various tasks through it. Guests also provided important information to participants about LinkedIn's social field and responsibilities.
Project Be The Linchpin with Aachol organized a Facebook live session about "Self Care through Skill Development" on 2 July 2021. Ashab Al Yamin (Facilitator Active Citizens, British Council-Bangladesh) was present as a guest on the occasion and Sumaiya Jannat was in charge of conducting the ceremony. The live session highlighted the effect of lockdown on the mental health of students during the COVID-19 pandemic, how students can increase self-care, and how they can develop their skills during that tough period
Our Special Care (Counselling) Unit organized several events which are summarized below.
Aachol Foundation arranged a campaign on mental health counseling through the whole month of February 2021. Our counseling/special care unit gave totally cost-free mental health service throughout the whole month. We chose the month of February as it is our mother language month and we wanted to show respect to our courageous martyrs. To make this glorious month more special and to ensure everyone’s good mental health we arranged this campaign.
On 30 November 2020 Aachol foundation arranged a live program about the topic “stress.” In today’s world, a lot of people are facing tremendous stress in their professional and personal lives. Gradually this stress can create mental illnesses. Thus it is essential for people to manage their stress properly. This live program was arranged to address this issue. Our honorable guest was Dr. Ashok Kumar Shaha, who is a Professor of Jagannath University in the Department of Psychology.
Aachol Foundation arranged a live session on 9 November 2020 about the family relationship of today’s generation with their parents. We are living in a time when the distance between parents and their children is increasing for various reasons. Our honorable guest Dipon Chandra Sarker who is an Assistant Clinical Psychologist revealed those reasons and talked about how people can make their family relationships healthy.
Aachol Foundation presented a live session on 2 November 2020 in which the discussion was about the problems people face in a couple relationship. Our guest for the session was Md. Asaduzzaman Mandal, who is an Assistant clinical psychologist at Dhaka University. Sometimes the small differences between people can create major problems and distance in a relationship which is not good for a healthy relationship. This live program was intended for people who struggle to keep their relationship healthy and do not know how to solve the minor problems which can create emotional distance
On 26th October 2020, a live session was arranged by Aachol Foundation regarding the problems people are facing through the Covid pandemic and how they can manage their lives after the pandemic. Our honorable guest Md. Shahin Molla (Assistant Professor of Psychology, Jagannath University) talked about how this pandemic is changing our lives, what changes will come after the situation is over, and what steps we can take to make ourselves strong and prepared. A lot of people were depressed at that time because they didn’t understand what steps they should take as the situation was totally unprecedented. Aachol foundation thus arranged this session to give those people proper guidelines from a mental health expert.
Aachol foundation arranged a live session named “Speaking with a Teacher” on 15 October 2020. Sometimes external problems make our youth anxious, tense, and confused about their lives. The mental health issues that youth face mostly depend on their environment. How they were treated in the educational and social sector can impose a mental toll upon them. Despite being successful students in their early life, they may lose the path to shake the world. It is on a teacher's shoulder to guide a student. Thus in our session, we invited Ahmed Tahsin Shams, a teacher, as our guest. He is a Lecturer in the Department of English at Notre Dame University, Bangladesh, the Director at Avant-garde Production, and a Media consultant at Film For Peace Foundation.
On 20th September 2020 Aachol foundation presented a live session on the topic “Body Shaming and Its Effect on Mental Health''. Body shaming is a huge problem in our country. A lot of people judge others by their looks. This body shaming and bullying stop our creativity. It is very harmful to our psychological growth. That’s why, in this session, we encouraged the listeners to love themselves, to accept themselves as the way they are, to spread positivity, and be confident about themselves.
Nowadays when we change the newspaper or TV channel, we see the news of suicide. Several people have come back from the border of death trying to commit suicide. Then they have made their life beautiful again. We wanted people to hear the real-life story of such a person. The Special Care Unit of Aachol Foundation presented "Sharing the unshared story" Facebook live program on 28 September 2020. Our guest was Irin Nesa Sompa, who shared how she repeatedly tried to commit suicide and then ultimately came back from that path.
The World Suicide Prevention Day is observed on September 10 every year with the collaboration of the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and the World Health Organization (WHO). 2020's theme was: 'Let's work together to prevent suicide'. The Special Care Unit organized a Facebook live program titled "Suicide Prevention: Beyond the Blue" which was held on 10 September 2020. This event invited people to share their brave stories to inspire others about how they overcame their suicidal thoughts and recovered themselves.
The students were swaying in hope and despair during the pandemic. As a result of living under house arrest for a long time, they faced various mental problems. Aachol Foundation's Special Care Unit organized a free workshop on "Mastery On Depression and Anxiety During Pandemic" which was held on 22 August 2020. As a guest, MT. Shirajum Monira; (Trainee, Ministry of Special Care Unit, Aachol Foundation) was present in our session. The guest speaker herself was a student who could understand and communicate about the problems faced by students like her.
The Special Care Unit organized a free online workshop named "Mindfulness Practice Session" on 21 November 2020. Mr. Mohiuddin Mahi (Psychologist, Medecins Sans Frontieres, Cox’s Bazar) was present as a guest in the session. The participants were taught about the benefits of mindfulness which include- understanding one's pain and suffering, reducing stress, reducing excess anxiety, increasing immunity, and so on. The speaker also emphasized the benefits of Mindfulness Meditation.
Adequate sleep is important for physical and mental well-being. But during the pandemic, many people had irregular sleeping routines. The Special Care Unit organized a live program titled, "Sleeping Problem due to Pandemic" which was held on 31 May 2020. Shammi & Tawny were present as speakers in this session.
Aachol Foundation's Special Care Unit organized a live program- "The stories of mental health" that aired on 4 June 2020. Juber Uabed from Bangladesh Youth Institute was present as the guest speaker in the program. He is one of the social activists of our country who was active even during the pandemic. This live session brought him to share the story about how he worked continually while maintaining good mental health.
The Mending Minds Team of Aachol Foundation runs the Mending Minds campaigns. In this campaign, everyone shares any such moment or story according to their choice which captivates their mind. The thoughts that people cannot share with everyone, those thoughts are shared openly with everyone through competition. This campaign is an excellent platform to share the talents of all and this campaign still exists for all. There are certain rules for the campaign, which are- Participants need to upload at least two posts each day using a specific hashtag to increase their interaction with the group. Share the post as much as possible and increase the engagement of likes, comments, and shares. More and more members need to be added to the group so that the post is accessible.
The winners are announced through the most likes, comments, and shares of the post each week and there are attractive prizes for the winner. The campaigns organized so far by "Minding Minds" are as follows: -
This campaign started on 28 April 2021 and there have been a total of 107 posts from this campaign till now. Following the rules of the competition, participants posted pictures to the 'Minding Minds' group using hashtags with very short captions to help keep the group active. Hashtags for this contest were #MadeMyDay #YouAlwaysMatter #AacholFoundation. The winners were announced every week through maximum likes, comments, and shares of the post, and special gifts were also given.
This campaign started on 15 June 2021 and there have been a total of 83 posts from this campaign till now. Following the rules of the competition, participants shared their mental health-related stories in the “Minding Minds” group. Hashtags for this contest were #BreakTheStigma #YouAlwaysMatter #AacholFoundation. Winners were announced each week with attractive prizes based on a large number of likes, comments, and sharers.
The Research & Analysis Team of Aachol Foundation has been conducting research on a wide range of mental health issues, including deteriorating mental health and suicide. The surveys conducted by the team are given below.
The suicide rate of the students went higher during the period of a pandemic. Thus Aachol Foundation's research & analysis team started this survey to point out how many students are being suicidal and attempting suicide during the Corona period and the possible reasons behind it. The survey was conducted from 8 March 2020 to 8 March 2021. The survey was released through a press conference on 13 March 2021. According to the survey, 49% of the total suicides are youth. We found out that among the total people who committed suicide 49% were youth aged between 18-35.The number of female suicides is higher in Bangladesh whereas the number of male suicide is higher in other countries. According to the survey, 56% of female and 43% of male attampts suicide in Bangladesh.The highest number of suicides were due to family reasons, 35%, followed by relationships, 24%, financial and educational reasons, 4% and 1%, respectively, according to the Aachol Foundation's survey. According to the surveyof BBS, more than 10,000 people committed suicide in 2019.A comparative analysis of the BBS survey with the Aanchal Foundation's first survey on suicides shows that the number of suicides in Covid is 4,000 more than in 2019. About 40 news portals have published reports on the rise in suicidal tendencies in the Corona period.
Many changes have taken place in the world during this time of COVID-19 pandemic and the youth are having difficulty in adapting to this sudden change. This life of captivity is becoming miserable for the youth. But the exact reasons for being suicidal are still not yet known. So Aachol Foundation has started this survey to reveal the possible reasons behind being suicidal and the mental pressure through which the youth are going and to take the next step to help those people accordingly. This survey began on 7 June 2021 and it is ongoing. We have already received 1300 and counting responses. The coordinator of this survey is Mr. Mostaq Ahmed Imran (Play Therapist and Assistant Educational Psychologist; Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, University of Dhaka). The result of this research will be released later through a press conference. This survey will help us to understand the problems of the youth and take the next step accordingly.
The events organized by Project Awaj are stated below.
The first initiative taken by Project Awaj was organizing an online workshop titled "Online Space: A Trap Of Virtual Crime" on 30 December 2020. The workshop was held from 9:00 - 10:30 PM via Zoom meeting. The honorable guest of this workshop was Jewel Ace, who is Cyber Security & Crime Analyst. It was hosted by Rafiya Rahman (Special Bee Coordinator of Aachol Foundation). The aim of this workshop was to encourage and assist students to receive mental and legal support regarding cybercrime. Many young people have little knowledge about the hazards of cybercrime and ways to protect themselves from harm. The workshop answered the queries our participants had regarding cyber-security and cybercrime. It created awareness and gave practical solutions to the listeners about protecting oneself from the traps of virtual crime. The participants were provided an e-certificate for their active participation in the workshop.
Aachol Foundation wanted to send the message of cybercrime awareness to a wider population. With this aim, Project Awaj united with numerous social organizations working in Bangladesh to create more awareness about cybercrime. Project Awaj successfully organized a webinar titled "Cyber Pandemic: How Much Safe You Are!" on 20 February 2020 in collaboration with 28 social organizations of Bangladesh. The webinar was live-streamed on Zoom and Facebook. We had three honorable guests from different fields to give their expert views on the matter. Our guests were- Md. Khairul Alam (Additional Superintendent of Police from B Circle, Khulna District Police & Former Additional Superintendent of Police from Cyber Police Centre, CID) Andalib Mahmud (Mental Health Professional & Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Sadat Rahman ( founder & CEO of Cyber Teens, Founder of Narail Volunteers & Winner of the International Children's Peace Prize 2020)
In our society, those who are victims of cybercrime have to face extremely humiliating situations. These incidents have a negative impact on young people and gradually end their lives. The event was aimed at educating young people about cybercrime, how to use technology properly and safely, how to protect themselves from such problems, and how victims can ensure legal and psychological support for themselves. EMK Center was the outreach partner, The Daily Campus was the online media partner, Youth School for Social Entrepreneurs (YSSE) was the strategic partner and Doctor TV was the electronic media partner in this event.
Project Awaj arranged another webinar titled "Social Media: What We Like, Comment, Share?" on 9 April 2021. The webinar was streamed via Streamyard. Our honorable guest was Tahsin N Rakib (known by the name Tahseenation) who is an Influencer, Social Activist & Content Creator from Bangladesh. He is a widely popular content creator on both Facebook and YouTube. Nowadays almost everyone is involved in social media and they browse online platforms in their spare time. But some are so engrossed in social media that they are not aware when, where, what kind of post or comment is to be made. Some tend to forget whether it is appropriate, valid, or harmful to the feelings of others. This event was aimed to create awareness among all about what we share on their social media platforms. So that no one has to be a victim of such cybercrime. Through this webinar, we wanted to guide the young students about the effect of the activities we do on social media platforms such as like, comment and share.
Project Surfaid is a project of Aachol Foundation which connects mental health and corporate life. This project organizes skill-development training sessions and brings skilled trainers from a wide variety of fields to provide training. Project Surfaid teaches students how they should deal with mental health challenges which they will face during their corporate life. Events organized under this project are mentioned below-
Interviews are one of the most crucial places where job candidates can show their talent, ability, and skills. However, many inexperienced interview candidates experience tremendous stress and frustration regarding sitting for their interview. To help people in this regard, Project Surfaid of Aachol Foundation arranged a Practical Course on "Interview Hacks". The course was scheduled for 27 March 2021 and 30 March 2021 viva Google Meet. In the workshop, there was a 2 days training session and 1 day for a mock interview as a final experience. It was a paid workshop and the registration fee was set 200 taka. We brought trainers from relevant fields in the workshop who could give participants practical and valuable guidance on this issue. Our trainers were Pauroma Pretty Mallick (Psychologist and Mental Health First Aid Trainer) and Yasin Shohag (Human Resource Lead, HR Professional, People Manager, Benchmarking Specialist). In this workshop, the participants were guided to uplift their self-confidence about their corporate careers. It taught them basic corporate etiquette and emphasized how to cope up with the whole interview period.
The journey of Aachol Foundation's Project Happiness started with this webinar. The main purpose of this webinar was to learn about the ways to acquire psychological happiness and how to build yourself as a real happy person by practicing those rules. The discussion was about the association of happiness, the relationship between happiness and success, and various issues to keep yourself happy. The webinar was held on 12 July 2021 at 8 pm. The honorable guest of the webinar was Md Elias Kanchon, who is an Author and Happiness Coach, and Founder of Coach Kanchon Academy. 190 people participated in this webinar and they received an e-certificate for participation.
The topic of the session was how to maintain peace of mind in line with the busy age of technology. 198 people participated in this session. This webinar was hosted on August 8, 2021, at 8 p.m.The guest of the webinar was Md Elias Kanchon (Author and Happiness Coach and Founder, Coach Kanchon Academy).
The topic of this webinar was the ways in which one can find self-satisfaction and peace of mind in order to bring back the entity that has drifted away from the show-off in this competitive age of technology. The webinar was held on 28 August 2021 at 8 p.m. and 259 people attended the webinar. The guest of this webinar was Md Elias Kanchon, Author and Happiness Coach, Founder, Coach Kanchon Academy. This webinar was jointly organized by Aachol Foundation and Speechmaster Bangladesh.
Aachol Foundation organized many live sessions related to mental health issues as part of a series named “Lightening Up The Mood”. Doctor TV was our media partner in this series. The sessions were streamed on the Facebook pages of Aachol Foundation and Doctor TV.
People are all more or less familiar with the term “career”. But in the case of career formation, there are certain obstacles and failures which lead to various mental health problems. Therefore, to make everyone aware of mental health in career building, Aachol Foundation organized a Facebook Live program named "ক্যারিয়ার গঠনে মানসিক স্বাস্থ্য" on 26-02-2021 at 6 pm. Mr. Monwarul Islam Rebel (Additional Director, Student Affairs, Northern University, Bangladesh) was the guest of the program and Efrat Jahan Shuchy (Special Bee Delegate at Aachol Foundation) was the anchor of the program.
All people regardless of their religion or caste expect physical and mental well-being. However, there is a common misconception in our society that religion has an inverse relationship with mental health. To unravel this mystery that whether religion and mental health are really conflicting or complementary, Aachol Foundation organized a Facebook Live program on 13-02-2021 at 6 pm titled "ধর্ম এবং মানসিক স্বাস্থ্য কী সাংঘর্ষিক ?" This program discussed the relationship between religion and mental health. Kamrul Islam Jewel (Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Jagannath University) was the guest of this program and it was hosted by Naima Akhter Rita.
The young society is very important for a country and nation. But many young individuals are now suffering from different mental problems. Thus Aachol Foundation arranged a Facebook Live program to engage with the young minds, to talk about how they can overcome these problems. This program of Lighting Up the Mood was titled "মানসিক স্বাস্থ্য নিশ্চিতে তরুণদের ভাবনা" which was live on 06-02-2021 at 6 pm. Mr. Mir Lokman (Director, Institute of Mime and Movement (IMM)) appeared as the guest of honor at the event and the Anchor was Efrat Jahan Shuchy (Special Bee Delegate at Aachol Foundation).
Since the body and mind complement each other, it is not possible to be completely healthy by neglecting the mind. Thus, on behalf of Lighting Up the Mood, a workshop on "Mind Care for Mental Health Development" was conducted by Aachol Foundation on 22-01-2021, from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm via Zoom. Through this workshop, proper advice on how to keep the mind healthy was given. The participants were also provided an e-certificate. The honorable guest in the workshop was Md. Azharul Islam Tasnim. He has completed BSc (Hons) in Psychology, MSc (DU Running) in counseling psychology, and is a Trainee Counseling Psychologist at National Mental Health and Hospital, Dhaka. The workshop was hosted by Rafiya Rahman (Special Bee Coordinator of Aachol Foundation).
Anxiety is a natural phenomenon. Some people have anxiety disorders including panic attacks and phobia which prevent them from doing pleasurable things. That's why Aachol Foundation organized an online workshop called "Getting to Know Anxiety" on 10-02-2021, 8:15 pm to 10:00 pm by Google Meet as part of Lightening Up The Mood. The workshop focused on some tricks and ways that can be helpful to manage anxiety disorders better. Through this workshop, participants were given useful advice on how they can cope with their anxiety issues. In addition, an e-certificate was also provided to the participants. Maria Zaman (Student Counselor at Student Counseling and Guideline Offices, Dhaka University, MS in educational psychology, Dhaka University and BSc in Psychology, Jagannath University) was the guest of this workshop and it was hosted by Anjum Ara Ety (Campus Magnet).
Students who are currently studying will soon start their corporate life. Mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, trauma, etc. can also be caused by struggles in corporate life or the workplace. Thus, a live show named ‘চাকুরিতে কম্ফোর্টজোন তৈরীর উপায়’ was organized by a joint venture of Aachol Foundation and Doctor TV on 16 January 2021. Mr. SK Tanvir Ahmed (Chief Experience Officer at Evaly.com.bd) and Dr. Depon Chandra Sarker, (Assistant Clinical Psychologist and MPhil Researcher, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Dhaka) appeared as honorable guests at the event. Amena Akter achored the program. The guests gave insights on how to create a good personality in the workplace and maintain a healthy workplace environment by understanding the mentality of others. It was specially arranged for those who are currently preparing for their corporate life.
Aachol Foundation organized another live show named “কর্মজীবনে মানসিক স্বাস্থ্য” on 25 December 2020. The main goal of this live show was- to focus on improving mental health by managing work pressure and withstanding the failures in one's career. The guest speaker was Mridha Md. Saiful Islam, who is the Head of Social Communication at Evaly. The anchor of the show was Azharul Islam Tasnim. The program was co-hosted by Aachol Foundation and Doctor TV.
Suicide is increasing horrifically in Bangladesh and most of these are students. Students are often unable to express their grief or tension with anyone. They are hesitant to seek help because of the stereotypes existing in society. With the aim to make a zero suicide Bangladesh, Aachol Foundation organized a workshop on 12 December 2020 for Dhaka University students where they could share their stories or problems and get a suggestion about what they can do to get out of depression and where they can seek help. Mr. Mostak Ahmed Imran (Play Therapist and Assistant Educational Psychologist, Psychological Service Center, Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology, University of Dhaka) was the guest speaker.
Aachol Foundation organized another workshop for the students of Jagannath University on 18 December 2020 in order to create awareness among the students by talking about mental health and break certain superstitions related to mental health. By participating in this workshop, students learned about different ways to take care of their mental health, as well as discuss their problems and ways they can help themselves by practicing different things of their liking. The trainer of the workshop was Mushfika Ikfat Soni, who is a Psychologist at Green Hill-Community Partners International (CPI).
Emotional Intelligence or EI is now considered one of the key factors to success. Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify and manage one's own emotions as well as the emotions of others. EI also helps with soft skills such as empathy, communication skills, decision making, and effective thinking. Aachol Foundation conducted a workshop on Emotional Intelligence for Students of Home Economics College on 21 December 2020. The trainer of the workshop was Rushdina Khan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Founder at Growthaholics and Honorable Mentor at Bangladesh Alliance of Human Resources Network. Sonia Akter Pushpo was the host. In this workshop, our honorable guest guided the students on how they can practice EI for the betterment of their own characteristics, control their emotions, and how they can use it in their corporate life.