Winners
Initiative: Karwan e Mohabbat
Organization: Aman Biradari
Country: India
Facebook: @AmanBiradri
Twitter: @karwanemohabbat
Website: www.karwanemohabbat.in
Initiated by Aman Biradari in the light of rising crimes against minorities in India, Karwan e Mohabbat is journey of shared suffering, of solidarity, of atonement, of justice, and of love. In September 2017, Karwan began its journey across eight states to meet families who had been hit by mob lynchings and hate attacks.
Firstly, Karwan’s social media presence on Facebook and Twitter were used aggressively to reach out to the inner circle of Aman Biradari and to the outer circles to create awareness about the rising intolerance in the country. Secondly, social media helped take the stories from the grounds—of families affected by communal violence and hate—onto the phone screens of thousands of readers. Thirdly, the campaign raised 18 lakh rupees in a month’s time through a dedicated social media campaign, which also brought together more than 50 travellers, writers, poets, photographers and videographers. The fact that the Karwan has not come to an end but continues to meet families—and offer them their love, solidarity and atonement—is a testament to its success.
Initiative: MISSING Public Art Campaign
Organization: MISSING Public Art Campaign
Country: India
Facebook: @missingpublicart
Twitter: @missingirls
Website: www.savemissinggirls.com
There are an estimated 27 million adults and 13 million children around the world who are victims of human trafficking. Approximately 75 to 80 per cent of human trafficking is for sex. MISSING seeks to bring this issue into the open in a non-preachy, interactive and thought-provoking manner. MISSING is a public art and awareness campaign that focuses on creating a sensitised, subconscious awareness about sexual trafficking across civil society. It uses simple but powerful silhouettes of women against an urban skyline or in a public space to engage people. MISSING successfully combines art and technology in innovative ways to engage public in a highly visual, non-preachy and impactful manner through combination of installations, interactive murals, art and gaming environment. Recently, the creators of MISSING built a public art project that allows users to talk to the art using a Facebook chat bot.
Social media, primarily Facebook and Instagram, has played a pivotal role in helping MISSING reach a larger audience and build a digital community that has access to relevant information on trafficking and are willing to solve the issue. In 2015, MISSING raised Rs. 16 lakh on Wishberry, and another $50,000 on Kickstarter in 2017.
Initiative: CrowdNewsing
Organization: CrowdNewsing
Country: India
Facebook: @Crowdnewsing
Twitter: @crowdnewsing
Website: www.crowdnewsing.com
CrowdNewsing is a campaign organisation that mobilises a community of supporters for journalistic, social and political interventions. The online community then helps raise funds and amplifies the message on social media to drive maximum impact. Since its launch in March 2017, CrowdNewsing has been trying to intervene in three broad areas to reclaim democracy. These areas are independence of journalism, clean and transparent political funding, and awaking citizens’ consciousness.
Through Crowdnewsing is present across all relevant social media platforms, they have experienced highest action rates on emails, followed by WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Facebook timeline and Twitter, in that order. With a membership of close to 4,000 people now, Crowdnewsing maintains a unique WhatsApp group for each campaign and uses customised strategies for each of them. The platform is credited for spearheading several social change campaigns like #NotInMyName and for initiating protests in Delhi against the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh.
