Team

 

The Team at the The Communication Hub has skills including creative, production, research, training, documentation, and strategic planning in communication. Its professionals have worked in communication related to the following areas, amongst others:

@ Reproductive Health and Sexuality @ Maternal & Child Health @ HIV/AIDS @ Adolescent Health @ Literacy @ Domestic Violence @ Gender @ Leprosy @ Safe Water and Sanitation @ Good Governance @ Tuberculosis @ Polio

 

Sonalini Mirchandani, a leading professional in communication in India, started her career as a civil servant in the Indian Foreign Service. Moving on to work in the private sector, she was Vice President Operations Research Group (presently AC Nielsen ORG-MARG) before joining Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in 1995 as Resident Advisor on the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project (IFPS) in Uttar Pradesh. As Country Director JHU (2004-07), Sonalini led the design and implementation of a state-wide HIV/AIDS communication program funded by USAID in Maharashtra, and provided technical assistance to the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO).

 

She has handled an array of communication consultancy assignments in research, strategy design and training for the private sector as also for leading bilateral and multilateral organizations including the World Bank, Danida, UNICEF, DFID, among others. Today she heads The Communication Hub providing strategic communications consultancy to the public and private sectors as also donor agencies. Besides addressing several forums on communication, she also scripts for documentaries and audio visuals, and is a visiting faculty at leading communication institutes in India.

 

Sonalini’s work has included major health communication initiatives and campaigns that have won international recognition such as the Dabbawalla Campaign. The film initiatives under the Workplace Intervention Program won the Bronze Telly at the 2007 Telly Awards in New York.

 

Today Sonalini is a member of several communication advisory bodies including the Technical Resource Group for NACO, and the Steering Committee of the global Stigma Action Network, and is a member of UNICEF’s International Polio Communication Review Team.

Sonia Singh, with a Master’s Degree in Social Work, brings to The Communication Hub several years of experience in developing, implementing, and evaluating BCC programs. As the Manager at The Communication Hub she designs, develops and produces materials for social sector communication campaigns, covering a wide range of print, electronic, interactive materials; conducts training programs; and conducts communications research in order to facilitate successful communication strategies for projects that work towards improving MCH and addressing HIV/AIDS in India.

Her previous work with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) involved close interactions with government departments, academia, media and NGOs/CBOs to institutionalize good governance practices. For Pathfinder International Mukta Project in India, she worked on supporting district partners in designing relevant program strategies and tools, including program implementation plans. As a Communications Officer, she designed program marketing materials and training materials regarding communications activities. She also provided strategic assistance to designing communications strategies and materials including newsletter, web, flipbooks, posters, films, and conference papers reaching a wider audience.

 

Deepa Hari is a Technical Consultant with The Communication Hub. As a core member of the TCH team engaged in the design and development of a comprehensive training package (including a training manual and communication aids) for ASHAs under NRHM, Deepa played a lead role in shaping the content and materials of the package.

 

Deepa brings to TCH rich trans-sectoral experience. Having commenced her career as a civil servant with the Indian Revenue Service, she worked in publishing for several years - as an editor with Orient Longman and subsequently as a freelance publishers' editor - before focusing on the social sector, particularly in the area of development communication and education.

 

For over two decades she was part of the core team of the Avehi-Abacus project, and developed curricula and teaching-learning materials for their flagship Sangati programme (now being used in all municipal schools in Mumbai for Classes 5, 6 and 7) and for Manthan (a two-year supplementary course for teacher education institutions). She has also worked on several projects with the Xavier Institute of Communications and Training Resources and Media Production (TRAMP) in Mumbai, and organizations working with Adivasis in rural Maharashtra. She has co-written and edited numerous training manuals and other educational materials, on issues ranging from gender and sexuality to financial literacy, health and nutrition, natural resources and human rights; and helped design training programmes for non-formal educators working with children, adolescents and women.

 

Santosh Gawade brings to The Communication Hub 6 years of experience in graphic designing and production. Having worked with private sector clients, including Birla SunLife, Asian Paints, Financial Planning Standards Board India and Thomas Cook, Santosh brings to the table skills in creating new business designs. In the past he has created posters, flyers, brochures, email campaigns, newsletters and websites used for advertising, product promotion and trade shows. As part of The Communication Hub, Santosh has been involved in designing all communication aids – posters, flipbooks, manuals, take-aways, checklists and process documents – on a range of issues including TB, Injecting Drug Use, STI, Maternal and Neonatal Health.

 

Archana N.K started her career as a Copywriter at Rediffusion DY&R and worked in the advertising industry for two years after which she completed her Masters in Social Work at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Archana has specialised in Dalit and Tribe Centred Social work and has worked with organisations like Samata and Disha Kendra on issues pertaining to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act 2006. She has also worked with Dalit Foundation, Delhi on their Art & Culture project and the TISS field action project in the Nicobar Islands.

 

Tapti Ghosh holds a postgraduate degree in History and a Diploma in Social Communications Media. She has been associated with The Communication Hub since 2009, handling an array of assignments involving production - print, audio as well as film. For NACO’s TI projects she was a core part of the team that developed training manuals and aids for Programme Managers, Outreach Workers and Counsellors at STI/RTI clinics. She supported the design, production and research team to develop the comprehensive package on pregnancy, delivery and neonatal care for ASHAs under NRHM. Tapti also coordinated a project for DKT India that included the design and development of a 5-state campaign to encourage spacing and safe abortion.