KOCHI: With social lives going for a toss in the wake of the pandemic, mental stress is becoming tougher to deal with. This is exactly why Palakkad native Aparna Viswanathan launched the #TogetherWeCan campaign, where she released 15-second videos encouraging people to de-stress. The campaign has been initiated through Zocio, a firm doling out programmes on Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

Aparna says now is the time for people to come out and support each other. “As we are forced to live with the new normal, it is becoming difficult to handle stress alone. We have been receiving several calls from parents, children, teachers and others seeking help. Many of them seek emotional support while some people speak about not having sufficient resources to manage their lives. If not now, when else do we come together to help each other? It’s this thought that made me come up with this campaign,” says Aparna.She shared the idea with her friend Roby Mathew who owns a brand consulting and design firm ‘Anomaly Brands’. Together, they came out with the unique short videos. 

 The first video, is taglined 
‘Express; Do not bottle up’. “Majority of us bottle up our emotions. However, this has catastrophic results. This is why we are urging people to share their emotions, says Aparna.  The second video, Scores don’t matter; Effort does’, deals with marks, grades and scores. “Even during these challenging times, there is still too much pressure on students to score high. Also, digital fatigue is proving to be a problem as children are forced to remain glued to the monitors for long as part of their daily lesssons,” she said.

Through ‘Cut the fatigue; Take a break’, the third video, the campaigners urge viewers to take a break.   
The campaign has been receiving tremendous response even as entrepreneurs, social workers, professionals and students from different parts of the country are reaching out to Zocio to join hands and support the initiative. 

Unlike the usual video campaigns, #TogetherWeCan videos contains no visuals. “We didn’t want to stick to a cliched format, which is why we decided to release the messages through sounds and texts. We wanted people to interpret the imagery through the sounds and felt that adding visuals would limit their imaginative power. Interpreting an idea is far stronger and lasting than explicitly showcasing the idea,” says Aparna. Jyolsna Panicker has been roped in for the sound editing. Through the campaign, Zocio aims to bring about a larger change by identifying gaps and facilitating resources for the same.

Other initiatives under #TogetherWeCan
 “We have formed volunteer groups on the ground to extend support in Kerala, Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu and Dehradun where we have offices. They’ve already supplied PPE kits and other protective gear to frontline staff fighting the pandemic. They also joined hands with Kozhikode-based social entrepreneur Anjali Chandran who ran the ‘Handloom Challenge’ to mobilise ‘Onakodi’ for families who were immensely affected by floods and pandemic in Kerala. We are also providing help with skill training for NRIs who have reached out to start small entrepreneur units in villages,” said Aparna, who is based in Bengaluru.
Anyone can reach out to Zocio for support by writing to twc@zocio.net.