Meet team Rocky Books!
Nida Sheriff
Co-founder and Head of Operations
Nida is an award-winning project manager, writer, consultant & social entrepreneur based in Bangalore, India.
Previously Nida served as Country Manager at Chayn India, the regional chapter of CHAYN, and member of CHAYN’s executive team. At CHAYN she oversaw the launch of http://chaynindia.com , managed partnerships, volunteers, and various resources like the DIY Online Safety Guide and How To Build Your Own Domestic Violence Case Without A Lawyer Toolkit.
At Chayn India, Nida co-founded SnapCounsellors, an award-winning micro-counselling service pilot on the Snapchat platform. SnapCounsellors was created to offer mental health help to teens on Snapchat, using technology to make mental health counselling more accessible. SnapCounsellors made waves across the globe and was featured in Tech in Asia, Teen Vogue, Bento, Buzzfeed and many more international publications. SnapCounselors won several awards including Nominet Trust Top 150 social tech projects in 2016, two Kyoorius Blue Elephants, D&AD Impact Awards Graphite Pencil, and shortlisted at Cannes Lions for “Innovative Use of Social and Community”. In 2018, for her work on SnapCounsellors and Chayn India, Nida received a Woman Economic Forum Award for Women of Exceptional Excellence & a Digital Women Award from SheThePeople for Social Impact.
While working in the social tech x domestic violence space, and interacting with survivors of domestic violence and the refugee crisis from around the world, Nida noticed that children were often left out of critical services and tools. Thus, the idea for Rocky Books was born!
Sheena Vassiliades
Co-founder and Head of Psychology
Sheena is our Psychology Advisor based in London, UK. Sheena has experience as a Trauma Informed Therapist, Functional Family Therapist, Criminal Justice Recovery Practitioner, Substance Misuse Specialist, Youth and Gangs Worker, Restorative Justice Officer and Sexual Health Advisor.
She has a vast amount of experience working with local authorities, statutory and voluntary agencies, including the National Health Service, Metropolitan Police, Adult and Children’s Social Care, and Adult and Children’s Mental Health.
She is extremely passionate about supporting individuals/families that have come to face various difficulties whilst trying to live, including (but not limited to) drug dependency, domestic violence, mental health challenges, gang affiliation, violent sexual behaviour, breakdown of interfamilial relationships,trauma and death.
Whilst completing her masters in Forensic Psychology, she worked in a high category adult male prison (HMP Pentonville, London UK) delivering 1-1 drug counselling and group therapy. She moved on to work with youth carrying out early intervention and prevention therapy (drug & crime related). Her interest piqued and her skills constantly developing, she began delivering family therapy to whole families as a unit, rather than focusing on adults/youth individually. Having first worked individually with adults and youth, and then collectively with families as a whole unit has opened her eyes to the importance of childhood experiences, family network and how it affects every person on their journey of survival.
Recently having a child of her own has further helped Sheena understand how malleable the human mind can be and how very important it is for us to receive the right support from our earliest days…the lack of which can be detrimental to our basic need to survive. To sum it all up, this is what Sheena does – gently guide her fellow beings over multiple hurdles on our paths of survival. And she loves what she does!
Rocky Books aims and values
To centre children as victims of trauma and refocus on their mental health and emotional development.
To provide mental health support and coping exercises to children affected by all forms of trauma.
To help children feel less alone.
To help affected children understand and learn how to manage their emotions and mental health at an early age.
To encourage adult assisted reading and support.
To encourage the adults in the home to provide support to affected children.
To educate adults who are around affected children about mental health support.
Rocky Books can be used in the home, school, shelters, anywhere there are affected children.
To be available for free online and possibly as print outs.
No Government involvement or influence.
To be translated, replicated and reproduced in all countries.
To provide a diverse product to help children of all cultural backgrounds.
To involve team members and volunteers of diverse backgrounds.
Scale and replicate to other areas: refugee issues, war, natural disasters, displacement, etc.
Meet our illustrators
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Arpita is an independent visual artist, designer and dreamer based out of Mumbai, India. Her design practice involves documenting all that is imaginative, heartfelt, human. As a visual story-teller; the only thing she likes more than reading about eccentric characters and experiences, is drawing them.
See more of Arpita’s work here: https://www.behance.net/arpitasawant
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Nirupama, a self-taught freelance illustrator, and designer currently based in Delhi, seamlessly blends her architectural background with a profound love for illustrating content for children. Her creative journey is marked by the exploration of various styles and techniques, showcasing a keen eye for detail honed through her profession. Her commitment to bringing joy and wonder to a young audience is evident in the captivating characters and narratives she crafts, making her a distinctive force in the realm of visual storytelling.
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An Illustrator/Designer by profession, his philosophy is to create pathways of experience, connecting issues of agency, belonging and identity through the lens of mental health.
His tools for imagineering these thought-provoking sketches are pencils, markers, digital renderings, ink being his favorite, on an eclectic range mediums.
