An inch closer to happiness
The inclusive environment of Amal Career Fellowship made it possible for students and new professionals from across the country to work on contagious ideas and contribute positively to the community. Our circle came up with the idea of helping the vulnerable population in dealing with mental health and career issues.
The most difficult part of any project is the primary phase because there is constant fear and ambiguity in mind regarding how to start. Keeping in view the pandemic, we went for an approach that is the best in contemporary situations. We built a website that is almost 80% complete through which we will provide mental health and career services. Our team leader is tech-savvy and he did an excellent job building the website. We also needed to contact a reputable organization that would help us connect to professional psychologists. Luckily, we were able to collaborate with the Soul Healing Foundation. This foundation provided us with 8 to 10 professionals who would connect with people who need help.
The team, through sheer hard work and dedication, convinced 25 people to use our services. Some of the people have agreed on paid therapies, some on free trials, and others are interested in availing of our unpaid services. The unpaid services aren’t a problem for the foundation as the sole objective is to serve humanity in any way possible.
The team faced a lot of challenges in making this foundation what it is right now. The first and foremost challenge was building the trust of the people. As we were newbies, no one was really interested in availing of our services. However, through the extraordinary marketing and networking skills of our team members, we convinced many people to use our services. The second and perhaps the most important challenge was to collaborate with an organization that could bridge the gap between professional psychologists and our customers. We contacted many organizations but no one really gave a satisfactory reply. The team members did not give up and constantly reached out to different reputable organizations. Finally, the team managed to convince Fauji Foundation Hospital’s Psychologists who liked our plan and connected with us through their organization. We gave a great presentation which really persuaded the organization.
Another challenge that the team faced was regarding the price setting of therapy sessions. The team pulled all-nighters to understand the market dynamics and eventually came up with a competitive price range for the therapy and counseling sessions. As website building is a really tricky task that requires a lot of dedication, our team lead faced a lot of difficulties in building a top-notch website.
We consistently changed our approaches based on the problems we faced. We tried to provide paid services but people were hesitant to pay as we were new in the market. We offered free sessions on a first come first serve basis which motivated a lot of people and the slots were immediately booked. After the slots were filled, we turned back to paid sessions in order to keep the foundation moving without facing any financial hurdles. Presently, we have a blend of paid and unpaid participants.
As the 21st century is marked by globalization, the world has literally shrunk into a global village because of massive technological advancements. However, these developments have had negative impacts on the mental health of many young people. The foundation has had a great impact on people who felt vulnerable. Hundreds of people are anxiously waiting for our upcoming free webinar on mental health challenges amidst the pandemic. While marketing on Twitter, one of the team members came across a person who loved the idea and wanted to contribute to the organization by providing her voluntary services. This shows that the problem we are trying to trace is of immense importance. Our target for customers was 30 in the beginning but as we have 25 bookings already, we have increased our target customers to 50.
In order to have sustainable growth, we will hire competitive volunteers and they will continue the legacy of providing a helping hand to vulnerable communities. Secondly, for the foundation to survive, we have signed a contract with Soul Healing Organization that we will transfer Al-Duha Foundation to Soul Healing Organization so that it could become a sustainable service. The volunteers hired would act as a bridge between our circle and Soul Healing Foundation in order to have a smooth transition. Thirdly, 10% of the profit would be used to keep the foundation moving without any obstacles. This would go on for one year until the foundation is entirely handed to the Soul Healing Organization. By giving a perfectly synchronized foundation to Soul Healing Organization, the psychologists would create a great impact in treating and training people.
