2007

CFAR has succeeded in improving the media discourse on the transgender community in Tamilnadu by its involvement at two levels. One was by providing media support to events organized by Tamilnadu AIDS Initiative (TAI), which has fore fronted the concerns of the transgender community in the state. These included:

• A media briefing in April that enabled the community to interact with the media.
• An exposure visit by a group of English and Tamil journalists to the Koovagam festival which resulted in 16 reports in the Tamil press, 9 in English newspapers and 18 online coverage as compared to 6 Tamil media, 4 English media and 11 online media in 2006.
• Media support for the Health Insurance Programme, which was yet another step towards the acceptance of this community as part of the general population.
• Media support for the weeklong Aravani Pengal celebrations that TAI conducts in January of every year to enable the community to mainstream themselves into the larger community. CFAR enabled journalists to attend the cultural programs, visit an exhibition of products produced by the community and accompany community members on home visits they conducted along with anganwadi workers.
• TAI panchayat

CFAR provided media support for the Promoting Access Campaign by Indian Network of Positive People (INP+) to create awareness about the availability of ART treatment and services for PLHA in 102 districts in six states. We prepared the media advisory, the material for the journalists and mobilized the English and vernacular print, electronic and online media.

On International Human Rights Day, December 10, CFAR provided media support for a press conference that was organized by a network of South Asian Feminist activists to share their views on human rights from a South Asian perspective. Speakers focused on shared cultural heritage, histories of conflict and unequal development and the growing incidence of violence against women and violations of peace, justice, human rights and democracy.

A press conference was called on behalf of Sex workers Collectives from across the country to express concern about the proposed amendments to the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act which they felt would adversely impact their lives.

CFAR organized the launch of the National Women Forum (NWF) of the Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+). INP+ has 85,000 members across the country of which 50 percent are women.

Speakers included Renuka Chowdhury, Minister for Women and child Development, K. Sujatha Rao, Director General, NACO.

CFAR organized the press conference called by the National Social Watch coalition to announce the release of the "Citizen's Report on Governance and Development 2007". The press meet included a panel discussion, which highlighted the performance of institutions of governance - Parliament, the judiciary, the executive and institutions of local self government - from the Rights Perspective. Experts critically examined key issues and policies like NREGA, NRHM, JNURM and SEZ and discussed the importance of ensuring the rights of vulnerable populations like dalits, the poor and women.

Prior to the launch there was an interaction between key delegates attending the event and journalists.

CFAR provided media support for a gala event - 'Seena Taan Ke' Utsav that was organized by the Heroes Project to celebrate the contribution being made by truckers to society for the prevention of HIV/AIDS in Delhi. The gala was attended by Richard Gere, Co-chair, Heroes Project, Bollywood actors Sunny Deol and Shilpa Shetty, Naveen Prabhakar, popular stand-up comedian and other personalities.

Ekta Parishad sought CFAR's partnership in mobilizing media attention for its 340 km long peace march -Janadesh 2007- which was organized to pressurize the government to resolve land and agrarian issues raised by poor and deprived communities.

CFAR systematically informed all concerned and leading journalists about the march, sent them appropriate backgrounders to evoke their interest and facilitated visits by journalists to locations where the Parishad was conducting public meetings and shows to create a groundswell for the peace march. We also helped in organizing a press conference, following up with journalists and monitoring and tracking coverage of the march. Over a four-week period no less than 800 reports emerged from the national papers and news channels.

We organized a press conference for the Commonwealth Games - Citizen's Initiative for Workers and Children's Rights, which comprises of leading NGOs and workers unions. The press conference was called to share with the media the initiatives and processes that had been started with the Delhi and Central governments to protect the rights of workers and their children at the various Commonwealth Games construction sites.

CFAR facilitated a press briefing during which the 17 organizations leading this initiative got an opportunity to interact with the media and seek their support and involvement. Eighteen leading publications and channels participated in the briefing and reported on it.

We provided media support for the launch of the "Indian Pediatrics Compendium" by Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC) and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics in New Delhi. A panel discussion on "Health of the Urban Poor in India: Identifying ways of Responding to Issues and Challenges" to discuss strategies that had proven effective was organized to coincide with the launch. And there was a poster exhibition, which highlighted the activities undertaken by 20 NGOs from across the country to improve the health of the urban poor.

In partnership with TANSACS an interaction was organized with editors and senior reporters of Tamil and English newspapers in Chennai to sensitize them to the response against HIV/AIDS and lead to more informed reportage at the state and district level. CFAR prepared a seven - minute video based on random reader/viewer feedback on any news, campaigns or programmes they could recall related to HIV/AIDS. Twelve senior journalists attended the interaction.

2006

CFAR organized a press conference to mark the return of the month-long Rozgar Adhikar Yatra which had journeyed through rural India demanding the adoption of the employment guarantee act. The yatra was organized by the People's Action for Employment Guarantee - an alliance comprising of civil society organizations, social activists, academicians and politicians.

CFAR helped National Social Watch Coalition - An alliance of civil society organizations, media, academicians and parliamentarians aimed at building a process of monitoring government action on professed goals of social development- to advocate with the media. And present their report on governance and development- "Social Watch India- Citizen's Report on Governance and Development -2006". Former Prime minister, Inder Kumar Gujral, released the report.

2005

CFAR helped 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 Asian women of whom 92 were women from India who had been collectively nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

CFAR helped to facilitate the Multiple Stakeholders Consultation on 'Declining Sex Ratio in Himachal Pradesh' in Shimla.

Topics covered include news related to HIV/AIDS; child rights (education, female foeticide, child labor); women's rights (safe motherhood, violence against women); elections 1998, 1999 and 2004 and the trends in depiction of men, women and children and other issues in soaps, serials and advertisements.

CFAR has been helping the Shri Ram School's Parent Support Group's initiative to provide special children an opportunity to develop alternative learning skills by introducing them to film making. Seventeen children- five girls and 12 boys- in the 14 to 17 age group were part of the workshop which enabled them to make their own short films.

The children were introduced and assisted by professionals in the different aspects of film making- camera work, editing, lighting and script writing and the 3-5 minute films they produced were on subjects ranging from the life of a golf ball and the story of paneer to HIV/AIDS. This exercise not only enhanced their technical skills but also went a long way in increasing their self-confidence.

CFAR organized a two-day workshop on 'Media and Children: Creating an Informed Response to Concerns'. Twenty children attended the workshop, which introduced them to television and explored the different television genre. Using interactive techniques they were encouraged to deconstruct images and critically assess them.

CFAR received a grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the quantitative and qualitative media coverage of HIV/AIDS in the six high prevalence states of Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Maharashtra and Nagaland over a five-year period. The aim being to use advocacy as a tool to providing greater visibility and leadership to issues of HIV/AIDS and the stigma and discrimination prevailing among PLHA.

The Project involved building of capacities of NGO partners implementing prevention projects, positive networks and collectives and interacting with the media and sensitizing it to engage with issues of HIV/AIDS. Tracking and monitoring media discourse on HIV/AIDS in the states, conducting a strategic documentation of HIV/AIDS responses on the ground, creating a knowledge base, rapid appraisal, strategic networking, capacity building of stakeholders and enhancing the effectiveness of media coverage through media advocacy.

Extensive advocacy has been done with the media on HIV/AIDS in order to ensure informed coverage of the issue and create the necessary sensitivity about the lives of people affected by it. This involved:

• Organizing media-visits to on-going projects in different parts of the country in order to reduce gaps and misinformation and encourage an informed discourse on critical issues. This had resulted in extensive coverage on various aspects of the problem.
• Engaging with the media and facilitating constant interactions between different stakeholders including PLHAs, NGOs, official agencies, donors working on the issue and those affected by the issue.
• Providing support for events.

CFAR ensured media coverage for the performance by Euphoria on the eve of International Women's Day. Organized by CHARCA in collaboration with UNIFEM, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and NACO the concert was held to focus on the feminization of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting invited us to a workshop on Context Issues on Television Channels that brought together channel heads and representatives, the Censor Board, academicians, media writers and journalists, the corporate sector, cable networks and the bureaucracy. The discussion focused on many of the issues that the Viewer's Forum had raised from time to time ranging from invasion of privacy of individuals to watershed policy and acceptable community standards of decency. It was, for instance, pointed out that the titillating videos resulting from the remix of videos telecast across channels was leading to sexual harassment and violence within communities.

2004

CFAR, which was part of the official Indian team facilitated news stories and interviews for the Indian journalists covering the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok and ensured significant coverage of the major events. Consequent to this we organized the post-conference press briefing that was organized by NACO, the Ministry of Health and UNAIDS in Delhi to share India's role at the conference and the key outcomes for India.

We also organized a special screening of the film "Phir Melange" for NACO and UNAIDS including preparing the invitee list, drafting and distributing invitations, contacting the media, preparing talking points for speakers and facilitating an interview of Dr. S.Y. Quraishi, who was the Director General of NACO on BBC. As media consultants to UNAIDS CFAR facilitated media coverage of special events like World AIDS Day since 2001. This includes the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2001, the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona in 2002 and the Regional Conference in Kathmandu in 2003.

CFAR provided media support for the spate of events that were organized to celebrate two decades of feminist activism in South Asia by JAGORI, SANGAT and V. Day by mobilizing the media.. The events included an international conference and cultural programs. The initiative received wide coverage in both the print and electronic media.

When the first-ever Student and Youth Parliament, Special Session on HIV/AIDS was held in November CFAR was given the responsibility of ensuring that the media was informed of the event and liaising with the media, organizing interactions between the media, parliamentarians and youth leaders. We prepared the media advisory, press releases and background material. The event received from both the print and electronic media with no less than 48 stories appearing in the national and regional press. Over 4,000 youth, including 200 from rural areas attended the session.

CFAR provided media support for the two-day People's Tribunal on Coercive Population Policy and Two-Child Norm that was organized by the Human Rights Law Network, Healthwatch of UP and Bihar, SAMA, the Hunger Project and Jan Swasthya Abhiyan. We liaisoned with journalists, highlighted the concerns of these groups and organized interactions between the delegates and the women who testified before the tribunal. The event was widely covered by the media resulting in 32 stories in the national and regional press and by six new channels.

As part of its  "Children Have something to Say" project, Plan India held a three - day festival of films made by children in December at the Siri Fort Auditorium in the capital. The objective of the festival was to provide a platform to children from different stratas and circumstances to share their experiences and concerns through audio-visuals, dramatics, posters and other art forms and debates and discussions.

Prior to the festival zonal interactions were held with young filmmakers in Hyderabad, Mysore and Dehradun at which the films were screened. Here again children had opportunities to interact with stakeholders.

2003

Media support was provided to Plan India after a series of video films produced by children in its Children Have something to Say project won the Special Achievement Award of One World Broadcasting. This included: prepairing of  children for the press conference to announce the achievement, coverage by the media and a reception for NGOs, child rights activists and donors. CFAR also took a small delegation of children to meet President Abdul Kalam.

Background material, a press kit and press advisory was disseminated to the media during the three-day International Conference on Gender and Poverty organized by the Women's Political Watch and the National Council for Applied Economic Research. CFAR also facilitated media coverage of the event. Press briefings were organized to announce the first-ever National Conference of the Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS and also to generate media interest in the convention and the partnership between UNAIDS, NACO and the Parliamentary Forum.

2002

CFAR prepared the press kit, provided assistance on media advocacy and undertook media coverage of the National Consultation organized by the NGO Chetna on women's health issues.

CFAR prepared backgrounders, press releases and a media advisory on issues that were to be taken up at the World Summit on Sustainable Development were sent to journalists writing on development issues in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal with support from the Corkery Group. Communication and media support was also provided to the Corkery Group for a four-month period.

2001

CFAR was involved with the press conference, media coverage, newsletter and summary report for the five-day Asia Pacific Region Micro-credit Summit organized by the All India Women's Conference in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank and the Micro-credit Summit Campaign in Washington.

2000

Organized visits by journalists to sites in Rajasthan, Goa and Mumbai where the French Organization, Francois - Xavier Bagnoud India Society, is creating awareness about HIV/AIDS among migrant labor and sex workers.