Who We Are — Rise to Wellness

Our origin

Born from a simple regret.

Rise to Wellness was born from the desire to see children not make the same mistakes we've made, for them to live a life we would have wanted for ourselves.

— Sorachantha Chan, Executive Director

Looking back on our own lives, we can all see things we might have done differently. "If I had known that then, my life would look so different." We can give children what we wished we'd had for ourselves.

Most of the skills that protect people's mental health, managing anger, setting boundaries, communicating what you need, bouncing back from setbacks, are things nobody ever explicitly teaches you. You figure them out by trial and error, or you don't figure them out at all. What if we taught children those skills the same way we teach them math? Every day, in the classroom, with practice?

That question became Rise to Wellness. We started building the curriculum in 2022. Three and a half years later, half of it is drafted, two modules are being prepared for academic peer review, and we have a school in Pakistan that's agreed to implement it. Pakistan is our proof of concept. Once a curriculum and its assessment battery are validated in one non-English-speaking country, the model replicates: find a local university partner, translate, validate, deploy. That's how we get to every country.

What guides us

Mission, vision, and the standards we hold ourselves to.

Mission

Teach children the practical skills to live a life of peace, happiness, and joy.

Through evidence-based mental health education that's free for every school and every child.

Vision

A world where every child has the inner skills to navigate life well.

Where emotional regulation, healthy communication, and resilience are taught as core curriculum, alongside reading and math.

Values

Rigor, honesty, and the long view.

We measure what we do. We don't claim outcomes we haven't earned. We build for decades, not news cycles.

Where we are

Honest about what we've built so far.

We're a young organization. Rather than dress up the numbers, here's exactly what three and a half years of work has produced.

01

Three of six curriculum modules drafted

Controlling Your Own Emotions, Building Relationships, and General Happiness, covering 22 of the 31 total skills.

02

Two modules being prepared for academic peer review

Controlling Your Own Emotions and Building Relationships are being readied for outside review by researchers in child development and clinical psychology.

03

Complete psychometric assessment protocol designed

Twelve validated scales mapped to a day-by-day administration schedule for ages 8–18, with built-in distress-response protocols.

04

First school partner committed

In August 2023, Hope, an NGO running schools and hospitals across Pakistan, agreed to implement the curriculum at their Zia Colony school in Karachi once it's complete.

05

Pakistan partnership pathway scoped

Identified anchor partners for Urdu translation and validation of eleven assessment scales, including PILL and the University of Punjab's Institute of Applied Psychology.

06

501(c)(3) status established and operational

Incorporated in Massachusetts; EIN 93-3363823; bookkeeping, governance, and donation infrastructure in place.

On the ground

From Boston to Karachi.

About a year into developing the curriculum, we wanted to know: would a school actually agree to teach it? Not in theory. For real, as part of their daily schedule, at no cost to them.

From the U.S., Sora connected with Hope, a nonprofit that runs schools and hospitals across Pakistan serving low-income communities. After several conversations with Hope's U.S.-based team, he arranged to visit their facilities in Karachi over two days. But the school partnership wasn't guaranteed yet, so in August 2023, Sora traveled to Karachi to find a school willing to partner with Rise to Wellness. He spent the first days on the ground physically walking through Karachi, going into educational facilities, asking whether they'd be willing to implement their mental health curriculum for free.

Then he visited Hope's school at Zia Colony and met with their chairperson at her office in Karachi. Within the first few minutes of that meeting, she agreed: Hope would implement the World Mental Health Curriculum at their school once the curriculum is complete.

Within two days, we had a partner school. Now we need to finish what we promised them.

Sora Chan meeting with the chairperson of Hope in Karachi

Sora Chan visiting a classroom at a Hope school in Karachi

Left: Sora meeting with the chairperson of Hope at her office in Karachi. Right: Sora with educators at Hope's school.

Sora speaking to students in a classroom

A teacher with students at a Hope school

Classrooms at Hope's school in Zia Colony, Karachi, where the curriculum will be implemented.

The team

The people building this, dedicated and growing.

Sora founded Rise to Wellness and serves as Executive Director on a volunteer basis, building the organization alongside his career. The clinical, behavioral, and operational team are dedicated paid staff. We engage trusted educators and researchers on a project basis as needed.

Sorachantha Chan

Founder & Executive Director

Sora is the vision behind Rise to Wellness. He recognized that the way a person handles life events directly shapes their mental health, and that the underlying skills can be taught. He brings over a decade of accounting and operations experience from Boston to the work of building the organization. For the past 3.5 years, he has built Rise to Wellness alongside a full-time accounting career, treating it as a daily commitment.

Ribaha Sultan

Clinical Psychologist

Ribaha is a Clinical Psychologist with experience as a therapist, child psychologist, and school counselor. A member of the American Psychological Association, she has presented her research at international conferences. Ribaha is a member of the Pakistan Association of Clinical Psychologists. Her work spans assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral concerns in children.

Sunnia Khan

Behavioral Psychologist

Sunnia holds a Master's in Behavioural Sciences and brings over eight years of experience as a senior behavioral therapist in Pakistan. Sunnia Khan is a member of the Pakistan Psychological Association. She specializes in ADHD, learning disabilities, and neurodevelopmental disorders, and has served as supervisor and program director at educational institutions across Pakistan. She is also a certified Autism Specialist.

Imama Aamir

Assistant to the Executive Director

Imama is an arts student with a strong interest in mental wellbeing. She supports the founder with day-to-day operations and behind-the-scenes coordination, helping the organization continue creating real impact in the lives of those it serves.

Consultants & Advisors

Farah Shaik

Educator

Farah runs an educational facility in Hyderabad, Pakistan with her family. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Education and brings practical insight into delivering programs in a Pakistani classroom context.

Farrukh Ijaz

Researcher

Farrukh is currently pursuing a PhD in Psychology with research focused on mental health, psychosocial wellbeing, and evidence-based wellness practices. She has nine published papers and brings extensive experience in academic teaching, research supervision, and psychotherapy.

Partnerships in development

The institutions we're working with.

Our first confirmed school partnership is with Hope in Karachi. We are also reaching out to academic and community partners across the U.S. and Pakistan for translation, peer review, and future deployment.

School partner (Pakistan), confirmed

Hope, Zia Colony School, Karachi

Agreed in August 2023 to implement the curriculum once complete. Hope runs schools and hospitals across Pakistan serving low-income communities.

Translation partner (Pakistan)

Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning

NGO with a dedicated psychological assessment translation pipeline operating in all four Pakistani provinces.

Translation partner (Pakistan)

University of Punjab, Institute of Applied Psychology

Has supervised 27+ Urdu translation theses; potential pathway for co-authored MPhil student work.

Research partner (US)

Tufts IARYD, Boston

Dr. Richard Lerner's positive youth development center; world-leading child development research, located locally.