Over the past 4 weeks, I released blogs and videos about awareness raising for social issues that we care about. The format of our media work on Joadre is to choose a broad topic and approach it from many different perspectives. Believe me, there are countless perspectives available. In fact, if we have 7+ billion people on the planet, then there are 7+ billion perspectives. But my goal is to try to share a very few that I have learned about during my work in the past 20 years. So in this episode, let’s summarise and get the 3 best tips for a successful awareness raising journey.
From episode 1 – Is awareness raising effective?
That has always been a question I kept wondering about, especially after visiting a Nigerian village in 2006 with my team. Our goal was to show a no-budget anti-trafficking film called “Greener Pastures” to a group of young women in the village. The questions that i received from the young viewers made me know that the voice of the survivor is stronger than any other information out there.
> Tip 1 – So my take away from more experiences is that we should give the affected people more space to tell their stories themselves.
Remember the film “Greener Pastures” I mentioned above? After showing the film one of the viewers father came over to me to beg me to take her daughter to Europe. That was the moment I started questioning awareness raising. How effective is it for people that see no way out of the problem for which you are informing them about. For people that already have a fixed mindset?
From episode 2 – Who is awareness raising for?
Seriously, I keep wondering why the “offer” seems to be the focus of activism when economics clearly shows us that the “demand” delegates the market. So why do we not focus on informing those that regulate the demand? Informing those that make destructive consumer culture boom, without any thought of the complexity behind. I believe even more now that awareness raising is more needed here in Europe. In the west where the consumer culture has hit the peak and people are so privileged that they do not even realise it. Watch the video!
> Tip 2 – lets focus on demand!
From episode 3 – How information changed my life!
My family had enough to buy meat but my mum chose more vegetables and let meat be the cherry on top. When I came to Europe and saw how meat was the norm to fill your stomach, I was shocked. Also very shocked at how cheap and available it was. I began to educate myself about the meat production and consumption healthwise. Read the full blog or actually watch the video. That was the first thing I did, I educated myself. I actually watched this film “Forks over Knives” and “What the health” and they changed my life forever. So you see information can change the game. Awareness raising is important, that’s a fact now.
> Tip 3 – even when you are dedicated to a social cause, continue to inform yourself about others social issues. You are bound to learn new approaches. By the way, diversity of information and checking the source plus interest of the information provider is key!
But what do you do with all the information you get?
In my next session, we will talk about fear and action. Before the pandemic, I toured stages giving workshops and speeches, encouraging people and teaching on these topics, especially against human trafficking. I actually worked on one of the first german books in this field called “Ware Frau” and published my one autobiography “Die Wassergöttin”, then researched for my last book “Hexen Kind”. So besides all these, there have been countless media reports, even a full 90 minutes documentary where I was the lead protagonist “Joana und die Mächte des Finsternis” produced by BR and aired on major German TV stations. So people know that I talk about this publicly. The same question comes after every speech or workshop, are you not afraid? What can I do? That’s why the next topic would handle fear and action.
Hope this was an exciting read. Share with your friends. Read the original english version on my global website to know exactly what I said not what google translated.
By the way, if you are native German speaker and want to volunteer in our awareness raising editorial unit, contact me here.
Cheers,
Joana
