200 million women in India have a poor understanding of menstrual hygiene.

47% of Indian girls are married before the age of 18.

70% of Indian women face domestic abuse.

This is the ground reality for adolescent girls in India today. Wealthy donors in New York are aware of these issues but to them, these are mere statistics. We needed to find a way to make them feel this reality and realize that they have the power to rewrite it. While a diary was used to elicit emotions, Augmented Reality proved to be the ideal tool to help the donors experience early wins and witness firsthand the positive change they could bring about in the lives of these young girls.

The activity started 9 days before the event. Each day Surjo, would write in her diary and the entry would be emailed to the potential donors. The diary was also updated on a microsite that was maintained for this purpose. On the day of the event, the pages of the diary were displayed, asking the HNIs to view the pages through an iPad that was kept nearby to see how they could augment her reality. On viewing the pages through the iPad, they could see a different diary – one where the NGOs had reached out to Surjo’s family, where Surjo was still in school and had the opportunity she needed to realize her potential. In this way the campaign allowed the HNIs to experience early wins, hence further motivating them to make a meaningful contribution. The activity was true to Dasra’s philosophy and beliefs that these girls, if given a chance can achieve wonders and contribute to society at large. The HNIs were also sent the new diary entries online once the activity was over.

The activity was very well received by the HNIs as well as leading members of NGOs that were present at the event. There was a marked increase in awasreness and donor interest as downloads of Dasra reports on menstrual health/ child marriage/ domestic abuse increased by 50% in the months after the activity. This raised awareness led to a rise in donations and thus helped the adolescent girls get one step closer to their possibilities.