Sonal Dhanani

organization: parindey

Sonal Dhanani, works as a trainer, creative professional, and art as a therapy practitioner in Pakistan. She grew up in Karachi and received her Master's degree in Marketing at the Iqra University, thought she would spend her career as a Marketer, only to discover after an internship that it wasn’t her calling and that she was interested in making a tangible impact in her country. 
Sonal is an educator and facilitator keen on promoting volunteerism and social action in her community through various programs. Sonal aims to expand her work into Northern and Southern Pakistan to channel energies of youth in underprivileged areas in productive ways. Sonal is a 2016 Atlantic council Fellow called "Emerging Leaders of Pakistan". She currently is leading an initiative called Parindey which focuses on healing communities through creative therapies. She uses arts and culture as a tool to serve humanity.

 What makes SONAL hopeful about Pakistan’s future?

About Parindey 

Parindey was started in 2015 after several terrorist incidents in Pakistan which made Sonal and her group realize the need for providing creative support to the less privileged communities. They started conducting creative therapies which includes arts and music and cinema therapy. This approach of countering violent extremism gave everyone hope to reach out more communities that were stressed to help bring them out of their day to day struggles. The Parindey team provides sessions to relieve mental stress. They Provide the participants a rich opportunity to empower themselves and become a stress-free force for building peace in the society.

Parindey is the first organization in Pakistan to introduce the cinema therapy and conduct art and music therapy for thalassemia patients. It is really important to provide a helping hand and listening ears to those who are struggling. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, there aren’t many platforms available to talk about and create awareness about mental health. This is especially true in less privilleged communities to nurture the creativity in the community and to be able to stamp out the stigma attached to the mental health.

Parindey’s Vision

Our vision is to reach maximum citizens using creative therapy as our tool; who are in the slum areas or are in the minority community and do not have access to the quality therapy and are going through stress due to terrorism, economic situation or health problem.

How You can Help Parindey and team

Parindey’s biggest need is funding. After a successful pilot program, the team wants to reach out to more communities and children, to make this a year-round sustainable platform for artist and youth who want to volunteer their time to go and conduct the creative therapies session in difficult locations of Pakistan.

Upcoming Program resumes Mid-June in the Liyari - Karachi, Gahkuch, GB and we need your support to be able to run it. 

This year team Parindey aims to cater 1300 citizens from Karachi and Gilgit Baltistan by running 25 creative therapies programs and setting up 2 creative centers

SEND YOUR DONATIONS AT BELOW ACCOUNT DETAILS

Account title: Sonal
Account number(iban): 6110820610714218893
Bank Name: Habib Metropolitan Bank Ltd
Swift code: MPBLPKKA