Jasson Compuesto

TDH-NL IEC MATERIALS A Case Study (ACX Outsourcing Hub) The Terre des Homme International Federation is a global non-government organization that is participated by ten national organizations whose activities are development and humanitarian aid projects. These projects are geared towards improving the living conditions of underprivileged children, their families, and communities in countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Their activities revolve around the advocacy that comes directly from the life and views of children and their communities whose human rights have been violated. The organization was founded in 1960 as a response to providing the needs of children who were caught in the Algerian War or the Algerian Revolution. Unfortunately, these children did not receive help from existing relief agencies. Hence, Edmund Kaiser, created the organization from that moment on for this particular purpose: to protect children from any form of distress. In the Philippines, Terre des Homme has a regional office that has partnered with these four non-government agencies: (1) Spark! Philippines, (2) Bidlisiw Foundation, (3) ECLIPSE Inc., and (4) Children’s Legal Bureau. This partnership with these agencies is brought about by the need to protect Filipino children from sexual exploitation and child trafficking, especially those who come from low-income families and are forced to work. The main goal of Terre des Homme Philippines is to educate communities of the rights of children and their need to be protected from sexual abuse that may come in many ways. Hence, TDH Philippine Country Office is driving a massive campaign of educating many communities in the Philippines through Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) Materials that combine visual and textual contents in the hope of propagating the organization’s advocacy that is localized in its context. CHALLENGE TDH Philippines anchor its goal to the advocacy of TDH International Federation, so much of its campaign of protecting children’s rights draw in from a global perspective. This means that its IEC materials focus more on the realities of foreign children who are suffering from different forms of abuse, exploitation, and negligence and the varied international operations of TDH. The TDH Philippine Country Office IEC materials, however, do not highlight the exact problems of child sexual exploitation and child trafficking that are prevalent in many low-income communities in the Philippines. Apart from this one, the materials do not emphasize the steps that the organization takes in protecting Filipino children who are caught in such negative realities with the help of its partner NGO agencies. Thus, there is a need for TDH Philippine Country Office to tailor their IEC materials in order to have a more specific and clear magnification of abuse that Filipino children face and the efforts that the organization is exerting to help alleviate the living conditions of Filipino children who are suffering from abuse. We, at ACX Outsourcing Hub, take on this challenge with a sense of familiarity. Our team has been exposed to the issue of child protection and has sufficient knowledge related to such. We have helped as a volunteer in the concept development to production of materials in many undertakings of Bidlisiw Foundation, Inc. and the Blue Heart Campaign during The World Day Against Trafficking in 2018 led by the APPROACH Consortium & IACAT7. We took this as an opportunity expand our network to a national level. Most importantly, this is our way of expressing our strong advocacy in terms of helping Non-Profit Organizations get the best service it could have through the creation of materials for a specific issue and through helping out in planning an event related to the NGO advocacy. For this project, ACX Outsourcing Hub focused on three areas of the TDH Philippines IEC materials that need improvement: (1) story-telling element of the content which is a reflection of Filipino children’s rights violations and issues, (2) visual impact of the design, and (3) identification of target audience. These areas are the identified gaps of the design of their IEC materials that we filled in so that they would have a clearer vision and direction in the delivery of their advocacy to the Filipinos and people around the world. SOLUTION To address the three areas that the TDH Philippine Country Office IEC materials need improvement, we executed the following solutions: 1. CONTENT We utilized research-based data and information about the following: (a) different forms of abuse and exploitation that Filipino children encounter, (b) various places where TDH-NL Philippines operate, (c) process in extracting Filipino children victims from abuse and exploitation and prosecution of criminals, (d) rights of the Filipino children, (e) ways and means of Filipino families and communities to protect their children, and (f) real-life experiences of abuse suffered by Filipino children. These information provide the framework in telling the stories of Filipino children who have encountered acts of maltreatment from the northern to the southern parts of the Philippines. These stories would be in unison with the other stories experienced universally by children from around the globe that need to be told and addressed with utmost urgency. 2. DESIGN We employed pictures of Filipino children depicting them in their innocent and joyful bearing as well as their current socio-economic disposition in life, especially those who live in less-privileged familes and poor communities. The intention of this is to show that these Filipino children are usually the ones predisposed to sexual exploitations that take place in any parts of the country. Also, this is to show that they, too, deserve to live a life free from sexual abuse and trafficking. They should be afforded to enjoy the rights that they are supposed to have. The pictures of these Filipino children do not only have stories that are visually implicit but they also potentially can have an emotional or psychological impact on the viewers. This is because Filipinos are emotionally and sensitively responsive individuals especially when it comes to downtrodden children. 3. TARGET AUDIENCE To be able to reach the target audience of the organization, we thought of using the following media as a form of print advertising: banner, brochure, and notebook. The first two are effective forms of public service advertising that TDHNL Philippines can maximize especially in increasing awareness among Filipinos about cases of sexual exploitation involving Filipino children and what they can contribute in putting a halt to such global crime that has destroyed so many innocent lives. The notebook is a form of a brand carrier for TDH-NL Philippines especially in continuously reminding the handler/owner of the advocacy of the organization. It can also be repository for additional information about the organization, especially if this is printed in strategic pages of the notebook. Aside from the fact that the notebook can be a form of targeting continuously the audience of the organization, it has positive spillover on the owner or recipient of the notebook because of the message that it brings forth. We held a pre-testing of the improved design of the IEC materials to identify if these materials hit all the checkmarks of the criteria set for the purpose of re-designing them. The target audience for each IEC Material wre invited to comment on the improved IEC Materials. A set of questions were made as a guide during the pre-testing. Feedback were consolidated and discussed with TDH for the finalization of the recommendations. RESULTS With mostly positive reviews given by the pre-testing target audience, we were convinced that our proposed ideas for the re-designing of the TDH-NL Philippine IEC materials check all the boxes of what effective IEC materials would be especially for a very sensitive issue that the organization needs to address and propagate through public service advertising. With the greenlight given by the organization, we sent them their new designs for the enhancement of their IEC materials. Since the production, distribution, and display of their newly designed IEC materials, TDH-NL Philippine Country Office has received inquiries and invitations from different organizations such as schools, NGOs, government agencies, and private companies to discuss their advocacy. These organizations have expressed their interest to collaborate with and participate in the activities of TDH-NL Philippines in different parts of the country as well as pledge financial assistance to support the plans and undertakings of the organization. Such positive results have paved the way for a partnership between TDH-NL Philippine Country Office and ACX Outsourcing Hub for future collaborations.