Bringing Girls into Focus

Sappi Fine Paper North America’s Ideas that Matter competition is an innovative annual award program that provides monetary support to produce the creative ideas of designers working for social good. Through this initiative, Sappi aims to inspire others to contemplate “the greater good” by financially supporting the meaningful ideas behind the aesthetics of design.

Natacha Poggio received a $5,000 Sappi Ideas that Matter grant to produce a gender equality campaign to raise awareness of women’s important roles in rural indian communities. Developed on behalf of Navjyoti India Foundation, the campaign included a set of 30 cards depicting Indian men and women in various roles, as well as a teacher’s guidebook. The materials were conceived to trigger conversations about gender issues among high school youth and to spread the message of youth empowerment and gender equality.

This campaign was a collaborative project that evolved from a field trip to Abheypur, India in 2009 and took two years to implement. Natacha Poggio provided the artistic direction, content development and instructional design components, while Hartford Art School alumna Parker Hu beautifully illustrated each role model, and Constanza Segovia and Tomasz Kazmierczak designed and colored the cards. The teacher’s guidebook was designed by Ethan Bodnar in 2011.