Apni Shala Foundation has been working with children, educators, and families from low-income homes, for the last 7 years in Mumbai. With a focus on promotive and preventive mental health, Apni Shala’s initiatives focus on building stronger social skills and developing deeper emotional resilience. In 2019-20, Apni Shala worked with over 4500 children, over 200 educators and over 300 families to destigmatize mental health, create awareness and help individuals develop better mental health capacities, and create a safe environment for others around them.
In 2017, Apni Shala launched Khoj Community School, an SEL-integrated school project specifically to offer earliest-possible care-integrated learning for children from Lallubhai Compound, a community with 0.05 points development index, lowest in Mumbai.
The Apni Shala Book project is a project where Myshka and Urvija, high school students have taken conversations between students and teachers, from the Apni Shala website, and have begun to illustrate these stories and make them a reality. Each story has different morals that highlight empathy, resilience, togetherness, and equality that each Apni Shala student has.

This project was sparked because Myshka and Urvija wanted to make the voices of the unheard, heard!

We wanted to give the Apni Shala students the opportunity to share their stories and to lead and inspire others. These children who are in elementary and middle school have pure minds, with simplistic ways out to complex problems. Their approach to life is so inspiring and Myshka and Urvija have the wonderful job of bringing their ideas to life.

Thank you for all your support and help!