See Now - India
Vision loss is one of the most common disabilities in the world, with over 223 million people affected. 4 out of 5 people who are blind don’t need to be.
See Now is a campaign to end avoidable blindness – raising awareness and asking governments to do more to address avoidable blindness. Purpose teamed up with The Fred Hollows Foundation to launch the See Now campaign with the goal of getting eye care to anyone who needs it.
Created while working as a Visual Designer & Design Researcher at Purpose in New Delhi, India.
Service
Communication Design & Campaign Strategy
Client
The Fred Hollows Foundation
Year
2019-2020
OBjECTIVE
Raising awareness of the importance of regular vision screening is essential in India where poor vision affects an estimated 550 million people and costs the Indian economy US $37 billion every year in lost productivity.
It is adversely impacted by low awareness of the seriousness of the issue and limited access to vision care, particularly in rural areas. Misconceptions, cultural stigma and myths surrounding glasses also prevent people seeking the treatment they need.
OUTCOME
In 2019, the phase one pilot campaign ran in five districts in the Uttar Pradesh region - Lucknow, Raebareli, Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, and Unnao - reaching 32 million people.
Phase two, which ran from February-March 2020, took in an additional 34 districts where implementation partners set up 260 eye health centers as well as screen 50,000 school students.
The SEE NOW campaign is funded by The Fred Hollows Foundation and in part by Essilor Vision Foundation, and in partnership with Sightsavers India and Vision2020 India among others.
Voice of the Campaign
As ambassador of the campaign, Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan promoted the need for eye health in Uttar Pradesh, his home state. All successful public health mobilizations have involved a sustained, deep engagement that activates authentic local voices. See Now moves beyond traditional advertising or marketing approaches, and has developed a communications ecosystem and robust messaging framework to raise awareness, shape positive attitudes, and drive people to take action.
“Vision problems are extremely common in India. Currently about 550 million Indians have serious vision problems which affect their families, their work and their quality of life.”
Audience
While the major engine for reaching audiences is our community outreach and a focus on peer-to-peer communication, we deployed a broad, mass communication campaign as a backdrop with the aim of increasing salience of the issue through raising awareness, addressing misconceptions, cultural stigmas and myths.
Media Engagement
The campaign deployed new outreach methodologies across tv, radio, print, billboards, micing, Whatsapp and social media to drive people to attend eye camps and get their vision checked. The social media presence for this campaign was on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Urgency
Shocking statistics around eye health care in India have set the stage for this much needed campaign. According to a survey, 53.2 crore people in India need vision correction, out of which only 17 crore people are able to access treatment. Most of these impacted people come from the lowest strata of society. 80% of India's population suffering from blindness comes from rural areas where every 250,000 people have access to only one ophthalmologist. The differences in gender are also stark - 67% of total eye patients are women, and they reach 40% fewer eye services than men.
Team Credit: Chris Cooper, Sandeep Dahiya, Kritica Mahajan, Rohan Gupta, Gayatri Varun, Mallika Arya, Pratyush Gupta, Suma Balaram