New video out! Behind Saathi Support - students at the heart of co-design
Check out our new impact film that captures co-design with METROPOLIS, including reflections from the final “Museum of Co-Design ” workshop
Admin
We’re excited to share a new impact film from our programme, capturing the student co-design journey behind creating “Saathi Support”, our peer-delivered mental health interventions.
Saathi Support is part of an ongoing effort to improve access to mental health support for university students experiencing depression in New Delhi. But long before the programme reached campuses, it began in conversation with students themselves.
Between July 2024 and April 2025, we worked alongside 31 students across 10 co-design workshops to adapt two brief, evidence-based psychological interventions for delivery by trained student peers, known as “Saathis” (meaning companions or peers in Hindi). Together, we explored a simple question: what would mental health support actually look like if it reflected real student lives?
The workshops became spaces for honest discussion, creativity, and collaboration. Students shared their experiences of university pressures, relationships, stigma, and help-seeking and shaped everything from the language used in sessions to the examples, vignettes, activities, and structure of the programme itself. Their feedback helped ensure Saathi Support feels relatable, inclusive, and grounded in the everyday realities students navigate.
The film brings these students’ voices to the forefront. Participants reflect on what it meant to contribute their perspectives and see their ideas translated into a real intervention that will support other students.
One of the most memorable moments came during the final workshop, a “Museum of Co-Design”, where participants revisited their journey and reflected on how their contributions evolved. Scenes from this session are woven throughout the film, offering a powerful glimpse into what collaborative research can look like when young people are genuine partners in the process.
We hope this film offers a window into the collective effort behind Saathi Support and shows what becomes possible when students help design the support they want to see in their own communities.