Mr. Vatsyayan spoke about digital advocacy as an effective way of creating a change in times of social distancing during the Nada webinar
Vikul felt that this had given him an added opportunity to connect with his family back home, Abhey felt that his movement had been restricted causing a decrease in his physical activity #COVID19
Nada India Foundation organised a webinar on “Digital Advocacy” for the students of Kirori Mal College on march 27th, 2020 at 3 p.m with Mr. Suneel Vatsyayan as the speaker and Ms. Riya Thapliyal as the moderator. Ms. Thapliyal began the session by introducing herself and sharing how the lockdown initiated as a meassure to stop coronavirus from spreading is causing emotional and mental distress to her personally and how Nada India wants to use this time to create healthy headspace by providing a platform for people to connect and learn/hone a skill at the same time. With this she invited the participants to share how corona has affected their life.
While Vikul felt that this had given him an added opportunity to connect with his family back home, Abhey felt that his movement had been restricted causing a decrease in his physical activity.
Everyone agreed that they had a lot of time that could be spent efficiently, which team Nada said is what led them to initiate these Webinars.
The session was taken by Mr. Vatsyayan who spoke about health advocacy and digital advocacy as an effective way of creating a change in times of social distancing. After discussing the six aspects of Digital Advocacy, that are, “Goal”, “Audience”, “Message”, “Tactics”, “Timeline”, “Monitoring and Evaluation”, he asked Riya to put the theory into practice.
Riya discussed the upcoming campaign that Nada India is going to run to commemorate “World Health Day” on April 7th, 2020 putting theory into action. The campaign aims to connect 50 people with 50 healthcare staff through a digital platform so that people can show their appreciation for the great work the healthcare staff is doing putting the needs and safety of others before their own. The campaign has been developed incorporating the theme of the “World Health Day” which is “to support nurses and midwives”.
“Nurses ko itna credit nahi milta jitna doctors ko milta hai jabki woh pura time patient care karti hai. Even rural areas mein midwives bhi kaafi kaam karti hain. Yeh achha mauka hai unhe appreciate karne ka. (Nurses aren’t given as much credit as doctors even though they are involved in caring for patients full time. In rural areas midwives also work a lot. This is a good opportunity to appreciate them.)”Abhey
About the initiative Vikul said, “The idea is as good as the idea behind Janta curfew to appreciate the work done by the healthcare staff”. Mr. Vatsyayan added, “It is also an opportunity to connect with people in these times of physical disconnection”.
The webinar ended with everyone acknowledging the need to develop more such opportunities for the youth to not only connect with each other but to sharpen their skills at the same time.