Through the Heart of Inclusivity with Sonal Kapoor

Founder Director at Protsahan India Foundation

Written by nikita sharma and Arnav Agarwal

Sonal Kapoor is the founder of Protsahan India Foundation. She has worked in this sector for over a decade strengthening global child protection services; she has spread awareness to fight against child sexual abuse and social entrepreneurship.

After getting introduced to the world of politics, investments, and financial markets, she decided to pursue MBA in Marketing. She reached out to various organizations like UNICEF, HelpAge India, and others to work for their communication and advertising. After watching the desperate conditions that some people were living with and meeting underprivileged women during her job, she considered it her duty to help improve their quality of life.

Definitions have not meant much to Sonal. As a child, she never learned about entrepreneurship or how to practice it. The situations in her life have taught her how to be an entrepreneur. She says, “There are so many things to learn from so many people every day. The kind of things children at Protsahan have taught me, I do not think a board meeting can even try to understand or even teach what dignity, patience, resistance or resilience means”.

Protsahan follows the Trauma-informed Compassionate care model of the classroom, which is friendly, keeping these children’s history in mind. They have also introduced structures and models to provide psychosocial support to children like their HEART model, which stands for Healing, Education, Art, Recovery, and Technology. They use it as a tool to help bring children out of their shells and into a healthy learning environment. They also make sure that both teachers and counselors are compassionate and care-providing, as well as trauma-informed. They infuse various cartoons, music, and art like Warli, Madhubani, and more. Many fears start getting healed, and traumas begin getting expressed; these kids become cycle breakers of trauma.

They use the term intersectional. It helps with understanding how the social and political identities of an individual can cause discrimination. When they talk about free expression, she believes there are many aspects beyond these terms, and looking at things beyond the balance sheets and fancy pivot tables is where the real conversation will start.

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