Make Love Not Scars is an Indian nonprofit organisation based in New Delhi. The organisation works with acid-attack survivors and was founded by Ria Sharma. It assists with the complete rehabilitation of acid attack survivors, including providing survivors with financial, legal and educational help. As of November 6th, 2016, the organisation had helped approximately 70 survivors across India.
Video Make Love Not Scars
History
Ria Sharma founded Make Love Not Scars in 2014 while she was a fashion student at Leeds College of Art. As a part of her final year project, she set out to film a documentary on acid attack survivors in India. However, after witnessing the appalling conditions of acid attack survivors in India, she decided to start an organisation instead. She told Isis Madrid of Public Radio International:
"While I was shooting the documentary, I found myself in a government hospital burn ward.The things I saw in the ward left me forever changed. I had never witnessed so much misery all at once, I had never been surrounded by so much pain. When you are in that situation you have two options, you could either return to the comfort of your own life or you could try and make someone else's life comfortable."
The founder was also featured on Mithaq Kazimi's show Konversations in which she explored the need for social activism to be relatable to young people so they could help with various social ills.
Maps Make Love Not Scars
Rehabilitation Center
Make Love Not Scars launched India's first rehabilitation centre in New Delhi in March 2016.A first of a kind centre, the centre provides acid attack survivors with medical treatment, financial aid, legal support, vocational training and psychological treatment. The centre also helps survivors overcome their emotional struggles through recreational activities like Yoga and poetry classes.
The centre is host to various classes including English and computer classes. Workshops consist of activities such as confidence building, makeup tutorials and legal expertise.
The centre also contains accommodation for survivors who are seeking refuge from perpetrators of their attack. The centre is partly funded by community donations and largely funded by corporate funders. Automotive giant Magneti Marelli donated approximately 31,000 USD for operational costs for the rehabilitation centre in the year 2016. Other corporate donors include Urban Clap and Urban Ladder.
Campaigns
#EndAcidSale
On August 30th 2015, Make Love Not Scars released a series of beauty tutorials calling for a complete ban on over-the-counter sale of acid. The campaign #EndAcidSale was created in collaboration with the creative agency Ogilvy and Mather. The face of the campaign is acid attack survivor Reshma Qureshi and she is seen giving beauty tips through a series of tutorials on applying eyeliner, lipstick and how to get rid of dark spots..
The videos created for #EndAcidSale guided viewers towards a petition addressed to the Government of India, demanding a complete ban on toilet-cleaning acid and a stronger implementation of Poisons Act and Poisons Rules. The videos, titled "Beauty Tips by Reshma" went viral and have received over 2 million views till date and the petition garnered over 225,000 signatures within the first two weeks itself.. On December 8th 2015, the Supreme Court of India directed Indian states to enforce the ban on over-the-counter sale of acid.
The campaign #EndAcidSale went viral and was covered extensively in Indian and international news. The success of the campaign was featured on The New York Times,The Wall Street Journal, BBC World,Mail Online,ABC News, Time (magazine), Mashable, Daily Mirror,People (magazine), The Independent, The Huffington Post and by influenciars, politicians and celebrities such Amitabh Bachchan and Ashton Kutcher..
Awards
The campaign #EndAcidSale was awarded multiple awards for marketing. These include:
- Gold and Innovative Channel Thinking Award at the Warc Asian Prize for Asian Strategy 2016 .
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments