A Sensitive Child’s Humane World

---

I was recently speaking to a big class of tiny humans, discussing the emotion of human displacement by war and conflict. Invariably, the room was full of different reactions. It is impossible to grasp all of it. But, there was a little girl I couldn’t miss. Quietly sitting in a corner with tears streaming down, plum red in cheeks, and moved beyond her own understanding of things. When I was her age, that would have been me.

I know this kind of little girl, with nerves that wreck you desperately enough to have to put yourself out there to do something about it. Or, else you cannot sleep at night. These are special children- they feel life in many more colors than most people are able to fathom. As they grow up, they begin to understand the nuances of their own emotions a lot more clearly. But for now, trust me when I say- their minds are in a state of constant chaos. Between this, is a very moving journey. I hold a bunch of these children very close to me today. I pin my hope on them every day. I believe it has become increasingly important for us to tell our children that the power of the strength is not in the ability to not feel. There is immense strength in vulnerability, in the complexity of emotions, in expressing and standing up for what we feel and believe in.

Too often, we teach our children to be ‘strong’ by telling them not to cry in pain or anger. I question fundamentally, this very idea of strength. Are we telling them it is weak to express anything that is unpleasant? Do we only expect children to express happy emotions and not anger, pain, sadness? Are we teaching our children to bottle up their expressions? Are we hiding away the harder, real humane emotions? If yes, then how do we expect our children to grow up sensitive and empathetic towards somebody else’s pain?

When I see children experience tumult in their hearts while we discuss the issues we need to address in this world, I live in the hope that someday they will do something about it. Nobody felt inspired to bring about a change until they felt the pain (their own or somebody else’s) in the core of their hearts. Like, that little girl in my class- who after wiping her tears asked me, if she could share her home with a Syrian refugee child. My heart burst open and I couldn’t stop smiling. 

That is the hope we live in. Let us hold close the sensitivity in our children and inspire them to make this world, that is theirs- equal, just and more beautiful to live in. But for that, first, let us allow them to feel. 

By: Anokhi P

PR for 📣Social Activism

By: Aishwarya Thapa ( Launchpad Communications)

---

Any social activism starts out with a simple bottom line, communicating a piece of information that you believe in, to another person in the hope that you can convince them.

Having worked as a PR manager for multiple social campaigns, I understand that activism is a

spectrum, it comes in different shapes and sizes, but any activism that receives media support

always comes out on top for effective impact. Today I’ve put together my learning of how any micro; small to medium scale social activist/organisation can optimize media support to increase the volume of their message.

---

Why Media Support?

The fastest way to reach large audiences today is online media (web publications), print media

(newspaper, radio, magazines) or electronic media (television, radio), the order of reach would

change depending on your audience.

I have met many activists who are doing great things on ground, using social media wonderfully, but aren’t seeing mass reach and new audiences. I believe that, this void can be filled by PR. Many associate a PR activity only with high profile companies who need to ‘manage the media’ but that’s quite inaccurate. Here’s what will happen if you ignore PR, you may be doing everything right but there’s no one telling the world that, this leads to the uncomfortable situation of catching up to a competitor’s narrative of the industry.

Use PR for a social campaign of ANY size to create strategic communication while leaving an

impact on a relevant TG, specifically, using the media as a tool.

PR Thinking during Planning Stage - PR Thinking

Let me bust a myth at the beginning, most causes/activists decide the campaign/event and then

think of how to get media attention. Don’t expect effective PR if you’re not thinking of a PR angle

from the start. A PR thinking cap requires keeping two people in mind – your target audience and

the media publications they consume.

You are the best judge of what your audience would find interesting, but I can tell you what the

media is essentially looking for:

- Relevance

- Unique proposition

In order to ensure what you are pitching is relevant and unique, ask yourself two questions:

- Is my message and CTA clear

- Am I executing my event or packaging my message differently/uniquely

A. Is my message and CTA clear

Whether you’re organizing an online campaign, an offline campaign or an event, remember to

peel off the layers and pick one main message and call to action. This helps your audience and

the media immediately understand your message. This main message should resonate with a

problem being faced in the NOW.

Example:

Campaign: Down Syndrome Awareness Rally, Chennai

Message: Raise Awareness about Down Syndrome

CTA: Join the rally at Besant Nagar Beach on Sunday

VS

Campaign: Down Syndrome Awareness Rally, Chennai

Message: Show parents that inclusivity is COOL, bring your kids out to play at the beach with kids

with Down Syndrome.

CTA: On World Down Syndrome Day, enjoy a beautiful morning at the beach with games, music,

and the waves, with kids with DS. #InclusionisCool

B. Am I executing my event or packaging my message differently/uniquely

Look at your contemporaries supporting other causes or similar causes and make it your aim to

come up with something totally different. Get creative and package your message in a way that

makes you stand out to your audience and to the media.

Example: The Down Syndrome Rally, on World Down Syndrome Day, the team had booked

Besant Nagar beach on a Sunday morning when it’s most packed, we had a band, we had actor

Sai Pallavi come in and speak for the cause, we had all the kids with DS enter from the ocean

which was a lovely photo opportunity, we had a float on the road with an MC engaging the

passer bys and more. So from an audience POV it was a Sunday beautifully merged together with fun and learning. From a media perspective, it was relevant because of the date, there was a huge crowd of 1000+ people, the beach in the morning made for a lovely backdrop, the music and the kids dancing made for amazing photos.

Example: Ranjini Srikantan, a 12th Grader from Bangalore discovered the benefits of Green

Chemistry in school and wondered why more corporations didn’t use it? Her objective was to

spread awareness but here’s how we executed it, along with using a website, social media, and

pamphlets, we knew we needed something different – something that would make people stop

and look up to this young, 17 year old thought leader. We found out that the Industrial Green

Chemistry World Conference was coming up in Delhi. She connected with them about her

initiative and was invited to speak! She prepared a speech that stunned the audiences filled with

CEOs of huge corporations from around the world!

Media Liaison: Now that we’ve covered the basics of PR thinking at the planning stage let’s move to the execution. Once again, to reiterate, I have collated the most practical method for activists without any PR reps or relatively new PR reps. The media liaison process takes a minimum of 1 month, start accordingly.

1. Identify where your audience is:

Identify the medium through which your audience consumes information, is it the

newspaper, is it web publications, is it television, radio, is it a combination of these?

2. Identify the right journalists:

Every publication has editorial departments with tight deadlines and stories planned ahead

for days. Take time to go through your selected media and track it for at least a week or two.

Shortlist the section in the media that your story would fit in, would it be the ‘City Section’,

‘Event Section’, ‘Weekend Supplement’, etc. Note down the name of the journalist who

writes about social causes, city events, or human interest features. This step is pivotal, you

will find no response to emails or calls to any journalist from a publication if it’s not from

their section/beat.

3. Plan the timing: The timing of the coverages is key to ensure it actually makes an impact to

your campaign. For example: If you’ve planned an event, aim for pre event and post event

coverages. If it’s a social campaign, aim for the coverages to come out as soon as the

campaign is live and keep it sustained for a few weeks. (Media samples A6, A7)

4. Connect:

The fastest way is to pick up the phone and call the office, if you don’t get through to the

journalist directly you will at least be able to get an email id to contact them at. You can also

try looking them up on social media and dropping them a message.

5. Create customized pitch notes for your campaign by including these key details:

- Why are you contacting Journalist X specifically? (So they know this isn’t some mass

email)

- Who are you (Add a tiny intro to yourself so the journalist can get some context about

your credibility)

- What is the relevance of your social cause/campaign? (Briefly explain what your cause is

and why it’s relevant right now.)

- How is your campaign a must do/must visit/must read (Back up your campaign with

facts, figures, insights that are unique)

- End with a call to action (how do you want this journalist to help you?)

6. Keep a press kit ready: A document with information about your organization/campaign, the

founders and good quality images. Be extremely thorough with the language in this

document, it will decide how the journalists perceives you and writes about you to their

audience. Don’t forget to provide clear call to action for your audience. (website, social

media links, email address, phone number, etc)

7. Be quick: Provide journalists with what they need for their story as quickly as possible, they

are on tight deadlines.

Media Coverage Leverage:

Always send a personal thank you message to the journalist for choosing to share your story

amongst hundreds of others they would have been pitched. If you had a good experience with the journalist and the journalist also shared an interest in your cause, let them know you’ll keep them posted with future activities. Do NOT abuse the journalist contact with irrelevant messages or information.

What you do with the coverage after it’s out helps you build a foundation of credibility for years to come.

- Leverage the coverage by sharing it within your professional, personal and social

networks.

- Add it as a permanent fixture to your website

- If you have a physical space, frame it up!

I believe, the key advantage of any type of PR effort is, best case scenario your message goes viral (by viral I mean, it gets its due attention) and worst case scenario you get to hold on to the

credibility of being featured in the media. In between are your well deserved results like – getting

new inquiries, building new followers, increased good will with stakeholders, increased motivation within the team, a window to being thought leaders and taking control of a narrative.

By: Aishwarya Thapa ( Launchpad communications )