The transition from the lives we used to solely operating online was one full of change and adapting. So I found myself constantly looking for ways to be more productive in all sectors of my life, the first being service. Since Girls for Girls functions on the basis that we get to have face-to-face sessions with victims of sexual abuse, and most importantly interact with them in an intimate way that facilitates close relationships and comfort. However, the school and the Emerge organization believed that at a sensitive time such as this, we do our best to regulate and encourage safety, therefore, we no longer continued in-person sessions for the victims. Instead, we shifted to online zoom sessions between members of the girls for girls organization. The Emerge Girls were not able to join us because they do not have access to laptops and the internet.
As the service leader, I felt quite discouraged because the sessions where we meet in person are extremely valuable in aiding the Emerge girls on their journey of self-healing. It was clear that we would not be able to communicate with the girls as frequently as before and as the service leader, I had a duty to make sure that we were fulfilling our goals and overall mission as a club. It was time to target those in our school community. We not only wanted to raise awareness but we needed to educate the members at OSC about our cause. The most effective way to communicate to others in a time full of safety concerns and restrictions is through online means so I thought it would be an interesting idea to reboot our Instagram account.
The reason Instagram would be useful for our service is that it is a platform that we know a lot of older students at OSC use, we wanted a way to reach audiences who are able to handle sensitive topics like sexual abuse. It would also be accessible to those outside the institution like Emerge heads and other organizations in Sri Lanka. Instagram also allows for useful and relevant features when it comes to showcasing what we want to. For example, after asking fellow members what they want to be included on the Instagram page, they mentioned features like photos, videos, a way of informing those in the OSC community about important dates, contact information, etc. I am also well versed with Instagram, therefore I feel as though this would be the perfect way for us to put my skills toward educating the OSC community about our service.
Although we have had an Instagram in the past, it has almost no posts and has been inactive for a few years now, so the first step was to gain access to it again and update the information on it. The first idea I had was to add inspirational quotes to the account every Thursday (our day for weekly meetings). This idea came to mind because I wanted to find a way to lift up females within the school community and empower them, something as simple as quotes would be a reminder that they have counterparts to confide in when they need it. After discussing ways in which we could engage further with our followers, the team thought it would be valuable to add pictures of us actually doing our G4G tasks, example include, having meetings, working with the Emerge girls, visiting the energy shelter, and having our weekly discussions regarding women’s issues. In order to achieve this, we needed to document our journey as a service, I captured moments that would inform our followers about what we do as a service and posted them as well.
When it came to utilizing the features of Instagram, I wanted to in some way use story highlights, a feature that allows users to add short videos or photos that may supplement their mission as a group/individual. For the stories, I added some statistics and infographics that would educate the community about sexual abuse and its prevalence. We also added some information regarding ways in which people can identify if someone they know is going through abuse of some sort. I did research to find reliable and valuable pieces of information that would catch people’s attention and raise awareness. An example can be seen below.
