Creating a Campaign to Empower Indigenous Communities

HOW CHANGEMAKERS HELPED CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO EMPOWER INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN INDIA

Last Forest supports indigenous communities to sustain themselves by empowering their skill sets and bringing economic growth. By reinvesting in community development, they ensure improvement of health and education and generate pride, dignity, and sustainable income for producers.

In numbers, Last Forest impacts over 6,500 indigenous persons in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The Aadhimalai producer company, who are their primary suppliers, has a total membership of 1609 producers, all of whom are indigenous people. Each employee in the producer company is a shareholder, encouraging them to make decisions on behalf of the company.

Based in Kotagiri in the heart of Nilgiri mountains, Last Forest has been a market intermediary for wild forest produce that is harvested by indigenous communities since 2010. These communities are working on forest and agriculture produce, which are natural, wild and local. Last Forest procures from over 45 groups across the country and sell through over 100 outlets including our own three retail shops in the Nilgiris (Kotagiri, Conoor and Ooty).

HOW WE MAKE CHANGE

Last Forest were looking for volunteers to help them with Marketing, Business Development, Web Development and Design in order to address the Sustainable Development Goals of No Poverty (SDG 1), Good Health & Well-being (SDG 3), Decent Work & Economic Growth (SDG 8), Reduced Inequalities (SDG 10), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12), Climate Action (SDG 13) and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17).

We connected them with skilled ChangeMakers. Here’s how they’ve helped 🙌

“THE EXPERIENCE FOR ME PERSONALLY WAS VERY REWARDING - I LEARNED A LOT FROM THE TEAM AND GOT TO KNOW ABOUT THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES THEY SUPPORT”

Saurav Narain 🇮🇳

‘My name is Saurav and I am from India. I currently reside in The Netherlands and I intend to develop into a researcher in the fields of security, human rights and world political order. I am currently working for Invictus Corporation The Hague in the field of seaport security. I have been fascinated by the world of social work and always try to push myself to give back to society however I can. Among my hobbies is acting, writing, hiking, outdoor activities and curiosity!

At Last Forest I have helped design their monthly social media outreach programme. In a team, we designed it in a way that every day during the week would have an agenda. We included monthly events, festivals, marketing strategies to create a wholesome social media presence. We used methods to increase the reach of the posts. We tried to keep a focus also on informing people about the initiatives of Last Forest, about the indigenous products, the communities involved and the region in India in which they operate - ultimately forming a local and unique image of the enterprise.

The experience for me personally was very rewarding - I learned a lot from the team and got to know about the indigenous communities that they support. A sense of satisfaction that entailed with volunteering on the project was very fulfilling. I also developed my own social media marketing skills working with Last Forest, getting to know about a new market, a new customer base and Last Forest’s products.’

“I HAVE LEARNED TO HAVE INTEGRATED THINKING BY CONSIDERING THE IMPACT A DECISION CAN MAKE TO A COMMUNITY”

Thabo Masuku 🇿🇦

‘My name is Dumidu Pathirana. I was My name is Thabo Masuku and I am from South Africa. I have a Bachelors of Commerce in Accounting from the College of Commerce and Economics (CBE) at the University of Johannesburg.I am studying towards qualifying as a Chartered Accountant CA(SA).

At Last Forest, I used my skills to support their team in designing an effective digital marketing strategy through leveraging social media analytics and data to help create content that customers could engage with and thus support the work and value that Last Forests adds to the community they serve.

I have learned to have an integrated thinking by considering the impact a decision can make to a community. Through supporting the project I have embraced a social commitment and the actions we can take in order to give back to society - and building a better thriving community.’

RESULT

“The volunteers were extremely skilled at what they did, helped us our immensely throughout the whole project to launch our social media campaign.”

MADHU RAVISHANKAR
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER,
LAST FOREST

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