Challenge: PositiveNegatives is an initiative that takes communication for development to another level in creativity by producing comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and humanitarian issues, based mainly on ethnographic research. Communication for development as a process relies on evidence of positive change, and the use of a mix of communication tools, channels and approaches but it is also complicated and few organizations and practitioners have fully understood how to use communication for social change. PositiveNegatives as an organization that has a niche approach to this challenge wanted the good practices of an inclusive urban infrastructure project in water supply funded by UN Habitat to be disseminated in the format of a comic” and animated video. The key message was to convey how social inclusion is practiced in the dissemination of water resources in 4 countries including in the estate sector of Sri Lanka and globally.
Response: As my assignment was to work under the guidance of a creative director on the Sri Lanka project I studied the script and guidelines to understand the approach to issues of social exclusion in a marginalized community. The social exclusion based on income inequality, gaps in service delivery, disability and gender based discrimination were the key reflection points. I visualized how the project has responded to these key points of exclusion and contextualized this grid to the social and cultural context of the communities living in the estate sector of Sri Lanka. By working within the colour palette given to me I illustrated the characters with a representation of living conditions and life style, and symbols and motif of the estate Tamil Community.
