The pain of an acid attack carries on for a lifetime. Unfortunately we live in a world where a scarred face makes those around uncomfortable. We wanted to challenge and change this. The first and best way forward was to find appropriate employment for them.

But society was not ready to even look at them, let alone work beside them. This bitter truth was the seed that led us to create the world’s first job portal for acid attack survivors - #SkillNotScars. The creative idea was the way we presented survivor CVs. Instead of written CVs we made 'Video CVs'. So that employers faced the survivors who were ready to face the world.

The Video CVs ended with a link that took potential employers to the job site where they could take an in-depth look at multiple survivor profiles and hire them.

The campaign launched on 28th November 2016 on social media and is ongoing.

We first created survivor Video CVs and launched the campaign on The Logical Indian’s (a leading social issues conversation site) Facebook page. These Video CVs were designed to direct viewers to the job site that we built exclusively for acid attack survivors.

At the job site people could select and view all essential information of a survivor and also hire them.

We partnered with Humans Of Bombay and shared our survivor stories on their page. Each story had a link which led readers to our job site.

We also collaborated with Buzzfeed India and made a video skit with our survivor Mamta and famous Indian comic, Tanmay Bhat.

The campaign scaled across social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. But more importantly, it helped create the world’s first portal for acid attack survivors.

• We received multiple job offers from individuals as well as organisations very early into the campaign.

• The campaign received cross-platform coverage from Global Citizen, Mic, NowThis, Radio Australia, NDTV, DNA, The Asian Age, India Times and more.

• The campaign generated approximately $1.5 million in earned media.

• The initiative caught Bollywood star and global icon, Shahrukh Khan’s attention. He spread word about it to millions of followers. He also personally met and interacted with survivors.

• Melange, one of India’s top college festivals invited survivors to sell their hand-made jewellery at the festival.

• Reshma Qureshi, the face of #ENDACIDSALE acquired an internship opportunity with Radio Mirchi, India’s No. 1 radio channel.

•We helped generate over $12,000 in donations.