Serenity in the Digital Age: LiftNow App Promotes Mental Health for School Kids

Radhika (name changed)  a class VIII student in Chennai has a new hobby now a days. She uses her smartphone for her mental health. Every  day the Chennai student logs on to LiftNow,  an  app exclusively for school children to write all  her worries, fears and  pressures that puts her under severe stress. “It unloads my mind. I feel relieved”, she told tellmystory.in 

The app has three elements of nature to calm stressed children. “Ocean”  enables children to anonymously type in their anxieties and worries. In no time waves appearing on the screen carry them away, symbolically off loading their burden and stress. Tiya Thiagu, a class XII student added “LiftNow relieves my stress and anxiety. It’s been designed keeping in mind our struggles in this age and day” .

That’s not all,the app has a “Wood” (a forest) for kids  to list all good things in their life  they are grateful for. There is also a “Deeds” part to record their acts of kindness and empathy, understanding how their small gestures can make a big difference to someone.

The brain behind is Amairha Pokala, a class XII student in Chennai. Her idea is to develop a simple digital mental health tool for the smartphone generation children in India for a better mental health. The Co-founder of LiftNow says “Research shows logging your good deeds and thinking about what you are grateful for can have a good effect on mental health”. Amairha added “Mental health has been stigmatised in India too long and this problem is not going to go away by ignoring it”.

With less games, more academic pressure and declining parental time for their kids, mental health issues among children turned critical amid COVID. Now schools are begining to introduce Lift Now  to their children. After introducing this to children at her school, Preethaa Ganesh, Vice President of Vels Group of Institutions said “It’s just not adults, even kids tend to feel stressed or over-worked up. During the pandemic around fifty million children faced mental health issues but 90% of them did not get the help they needed and that’s where LiftNow comes into play and it’s free and accessible for everyone to het the mental health they require”.

Originally developed by US based Varun Thvar, Amairha  customised this  to India and has made it her mission to take this to schools across the country to improve their mental health. Donors, she says are also willing to help schools who may not have the resources or devices for this.