2006

CFAR organized 16 media consultation workshops involving journalists in 27 districts of Karnataka in collaboration with the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust.

In collaboration with UNICEF on the issue of HIV/AIDS CFAR focused on strengthening strategic advocacy with various stakeholders- program managers and implementers, members of SHGs, elected panchayat members of civil societies organizations and agencies working on issues relating to masculinity, male involvement and violence against women.

We worked with the Madhya Pradesh based organization Samarthan to develop an advocacy package and modules that focuses on HIV prevention education and enables grassroots women to create an awareness of their vulnerability to and risk of HIV/AIDS. We also facilitated an exchange of views and perspectives among NGOs, agencies and experts working on masculinity, male involvement and women's empowerment at a daylong workshop of Masculinity and Male Responsibility. A status paper was generated based on the deliberations as well as a 13-minute multimedia presentation entitles Trajectory of a Saga.

Media sensitization workshop organized in collaboration with the Centre for Women's Development Studies in Agra on sex selection and female foeticide for print and electronic media persons in Madhya Pradesh.

A National Media Workshop on sex selection and female foeticide was also organized to enable various stakeholders- civil society, advocates, doctors, and the government to take stock of the bottle necks and formulate a more effective strategy to eliminate the practice of female foeticide.

Daylong workshop was organized with UNICEF on girls education-"Let's Talk" to enable girls from states as diverse as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,  Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Delhi to come together and dialogue with each other and concerned stakeholders on the issue of the girl child.

CFAR facilitated media advocacy among the media for a daylong dialogue -Voices from the Ground- that was organized by the Women Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership (WHRAP) in New Delhi on maternal health issues. It brought together grassroots women from several states who shared their experiences with policy makers from the Planning Commission and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, representatives of NGOs and UN agencies like UNFPA, WHO and UNICEF.

CFAR helped the National Social Watch Coalition to advocate with the media and present the Social Watch India: Citizens' Report on Governance and Development-2006.

CFAR enabled Jagori to advocate with the media on the objectives of the '1000 women Nobel Peace Prize'. The event was organized to release the names of the 157 women who had been nominated for the prize from South Asia including 92 from India.

CFAR helped to facilitate the Multi Stakeholders Consultation on 'Declining Sex Ratio in Himachal Pradesh in Shimla which brought together resource persons and media representatives.

2004

CFAR in collaboration with the Centre for Women's Development Studies organized a media workshop on "Sex Selection and Female Foeticide in Delhi with support from the National Foundation for India, HIVOS and the British High Commission in April 2004.. It brought together journalists from the national, regional and local media and experts from all over the country who are working on women's rights, medical ethics, population, law and the implementation of the PCPNDT Act.

A three-day workshop on sex selection was organized by the Centre for Women's Development Studies and CFAR with support from HIVOS and UNIFEM in Goa in December. It brought together media participants from all over the country as well as experts, activists and government representatives.

From April to August 2004 CFAR worked on a short-term project for OXFAM India Trust titled "Facilitating media interface on developing media advocacy strategies on ending violence against women."

OXFAM GB asked CFAR to develop an advocacy framework for the HIV/AIDS prevention and care programme for rural and tribal youth in India titled - "Collating Stakeholders Perceptions, Issues and Concerns to Build an Advocacy Framework for the Programme."

CFAR provided advocacy support for a two day National Advocacy Seminar organized by the Poorest Areas in Civil Society Programme of Development Alternatives in January.

CFAR organized a three-day capacity building workshop to strengthen media advocacy skills among Women's Health and Rights Advocacy Partnership (WHRAP) partners in a project under ARROW, Malaysia. The focus of the workshop that was held in January in Goa was on sexual and reproductive health and rights especially in the context of safe motherhood and young people.

CFAR supported an interaction organized by CHETNA in collaboration with CRY between less privileged children and the media in September. It brought together underprivileged children from different NGOs and journalists from the national and regional media. The interface helped to highlight the issues relating to these children at the micro level to the media.

CFAR provided media support and advocated with the media for the first ever Student and Youth Parliament, Special Session on HIV/AIDS organized in November 2004 by NACO, UNAIDS and the ministries of Health and Family Welfare and the Deportment of Youth and Sports of the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

CFAR organized a two-day workshop on Integrating Gender Perspective into the Teaching and Training Programmes on Journalism and Development Communication in collaboration with the National Commission for Women. It brought together faculty members from 12 major universities offering journalism courses at the graduate and post-graduate level.

2003

CFAR organized workshops in January and May on sex determination and foeticide to sensitize the national and state-level media. The objective of the workshops was to strengthen evidence-based reporting and the perspective on gender rights and the growing violence against women and the girl child. It brought together the media and experts on women's health and rights, medical ethics and members of regulatory bodies.

A two-day sensitization workshop was organized in collaboration with Centre for Women's Development Studies for journalists from 17 states on Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act. The focus of the workshop, which was supported by UNIFEM, UNICEF and WHO was on public advocacy through mass media for eliminating sex selective abortions.

2002

With support from Save the Children Fund, a meeting was organized with representatives of their regional offices on the issue of Violence against the Girl Child during which CFAR presented an advocacy plan on this issue.

Interaction was organized between journalists and street and working children associated with Chetna-Badhte Kadam initiative with support from Save the Children Fund. The aim was to sensitize and share the children's personal and collective challenges in their daily lives with the Media so as to create a body of empathetic, concerned and informed media practitioners. It also enabled the journalists to share their professional and personal challenges in dealing with and reporting on these issues. A poster and video clips were also prepared for this interaction.

2001

Prominent journalists from the Hindi Press were sensitized on the issue of domestic violence and asked to disseminate the results of four studies that were conducted, two each in Maharashtra and Karnataka by ICRW on domestic violence in India.

A National Media Consultation was organized in collaboration with the UNDP HIV & Development Project for south and Southwest Asia as part of UNGASS. The aim was to provide a forum for media practitioners, advocacy groups and PLHA to reflect on the media's response to the epidemic and related development issues. Based on these deliberations guidelines and norms were developed for media practitioners with emphasis on a self-regulatory mechanism through a code of conduct and ethics that the media had itself evolved.

With support from UNICEF and Ford Foundation an interface was created between children, All India Radio, Doordarshan and professional groups and NGOs working with children with the objective of ensuring that broadcasters observe International Broadcasting Children's Day (IBCD) which falls on the second Sunday of December. Community meetings were organized with children, parents, educationists and policy makers. Children were involved in creative exercises with emphasis on affirming child rights in relation to media and their right to fair and balanced advertisements. A public meeting was organized to address the concerns of parents and children with respect to television and the issue of a Public Regulatory Mechanism that was viewer and user responsive. As also a first-ever public hearing in which children interacted with advertisers, child rights groups, the donor community and critically analyzed the media's approach to children using child-centered tools and processes. As a result of these activities children were able to take on the roles of anchor, interviewers, newsreaders and reporters across leading channels including Doordarshan and Star TV on IBCD.

A round table event titled, "Affirming the Role of Civil Society in Addressing the Rights of Adolescents and Children", was conducted with gatekeepers with support from AUSAID. It was based on the growing realization that for any response to HIV/AIDS to be effective it was imperative to work with young people, "because their attitudes and actions will have a profound effect on future prevention and control of the epidemic."