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 @ Education @ Domestic Violence @ Gender @ Leprosy @ Safe Water and Sanitation @ Good Governance @ Tuberculosis @ Polio @ Anti-trafficking @ Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

 

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 brings to The Communication Hub over a decade’s experience in developing, implementing and evaluating BCC programmes throughout India. With a Master’s degree in Social Work, Sonia is highly skilled in building linkages with government departments, academia, the media and NGOs/CBOs in order to create and sustain health awareness programmes. She has extensive experience in researching, analyzing, and disseminating population data in order to facilitate the best design and implementation strategy for communications programmes and her cross-sectoral experience includes working in communications related to HIV/AIDS, Maternal and Child Health, Safe Water and Sanitation, and Good Governance.

As Communications Director at TCH, she oversees the design, development and production of materials for social sector communication campaigns, covering a range of print, electronic, and interactive materials. She is also closely involved in the research and the training programmes related to the development and implementation of communication strategies.

 

Her previous work with the Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) included interactions with government departments, academia, media and NGOs/CBOs to institutionalize good governance practices. For Pathfinder International’s Mukta Project in India, Sonia worked with most at risk populations (MARPs) providing technical support for strategic designing, linkage building and designing programme marketing and training materials for communications activities. As part of developing project-specific materials, she designed communication strategies and products, including newsletters, web pages, flip books for low literate audiences, posters, films, and conference papers.

 

As a Technical Consultant, Deepa Hari brings rich trans-sectoral experience to The Communication Hub. 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 (XIC) and Training Resources and Media Production (TRAMP) in Mumbai, and organizations working with Adivasis in rural Maharashtra. She has co-written and edited 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.

 

At TCH, Deepa has played a key role in shaping the content and materials of the training package for ASHAs under NRHM, and in designing the Instructional Design package and conducting the TOT for SHARE India-PHMI. She is currently part of the team working on the UNICEF-supported project to design a communication strategy and action plan for advancing NRHM outcomes in Jharkhand, a film on prevention of trafficking of women and girls (for UNWomen) and curricula and materials for a positive prevention programme in Andhra Pradesh (for FHI360).

 

Soumi Guha has over nine years’ experience in the development sector, in the areas of education and HIV-AIDS. As a Senior Programme Officer at the Child In Need Institute (CINI) in Jharkhand, Soumi was responsible for planning and implementing the organization’s educational programmes, and worked in close collaboration with the Education department in the State to implement the Right to Education, besides monitoring partner organizations, providing technical inputs, managing teams, and planning and executing programmes for development of child-friendly schools. She has also worked on issues related to protection of child rights, both with the government and multilateral agencies.

 

As a Training Co-ordinator steering the State Training and Resource Centre (STRC) in West Bengal and Sikkim for a NACO-supported initiative, Soumi’s responsibilities included the overall management of the STRC, monitoring and establishing linkages with intervention programmes in the two States, initiating research, planning and monitoring of quality of training and documentation, and development of need-based pedagogy.

 

Soumi also played a key role in capacity building efforts within CINI, designing and conducting training programmes for functionaries at various levels. In addition, she developed materials for training and behaviour change communication, as well as monitoring tools, specifically in the area of HIV-AIDS.

 

Santosh Gawade brings to The Communication Hub 10 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.