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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:

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Reproductive Health and Sexuality

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Maternal & Child Health

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HIV/AIDS

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Adolescent Health

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Education

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Domestic Violence

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Gender

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Leprosy

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Safe Water and Sanitation

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Good Governance

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Tuberculosis

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Polio

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Anti-trafficking

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Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

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Vector-Borne Diseases

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Substance Abuse

 

Sonalini Mirchandani has three decades of experience in social sector communication in India. Her work in the subcontinent in communications research, strategic design, capacity building and implementation of interventions has spanned sectors including reproductive health, child rights, communicable diseases, gender-based violence, governance, and others.

 

Sonalini 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) before joining Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in 1995 as Resident Advisor on the Innovations in Family Planning Services Project (IFPS) in Uttar Pradesh. Subsequently, as Country Director JHU (2004-07), Sonalini led the design and implementation of a USAID- supported HIV/AIDS communication programme in India.

 

She has handled an array of communication consultancy assignments for the private sector and also for leading bilateral and multilateral organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, DANIDA, UNICEF, UKAid, among others. Today she heads The Communication Hub, an organization founded by her in 2007. 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. Her work on stigma reduction with HIV positive women was featured as a best practice at the Vienna AIDS Conference. She is a member of several communication advisory bodies including the Technical Resource Group for the Department of AIDS Control, the Steering Committee of the global Stigma Action Network, CDMC-MICA's Advisory Committee, and UNICEF's International Polio Communications Review Team.

She is a Member of the Advisory Council of Population Foundation of India and serves on the Advisory Boards of SNEHA and CCDT.

She is Director at the recently-launched Karuna Evam Shanti Vahini Foundation, a not-for-profit set up by her, that aims to work in public health towards a more equitable tomorrow.

Shivani Kapoor brings to The Communication Hub 15 years of full-time experience in the development sector in designing, implementing and leading programmes on PPPs, market based partnerships, behaviour change communication, and policy and advocacy campaigns.

Her recent experience includes senior consultant assignments with the Futures Group, Abt Associates and PwC. Through her career, Shivani has worked closely with bilateral and multilateral donors, private sector clients, medical and industry associations, and state and national governments. In her last full time position (2012-14) she served as Deputy Chief of Party of a $ 38 million USAID/India HIV/AIDS Project, leading the private sector engagement through partnerships and CSR.

 

Prior to that (2009-12), she served as Director for Policy & Advocacy for USAID's Market-based Partnerships for Health project, where she was instrumental in setting up a national Child Health and Hygiene Alliance in partnership with Tata Swach, Dettol, Sulabh and ORS-Zinc manufacturing pharmaceutical companies. From 2009-12, she was the State Representative/Jharkhand for the ITAP project focused on technical assistance to the Government of Jharkhand on institutional strengthening and PPP. Her work included development of the State's first "Health Communication Strategy", adopted by the government, and design and implementation of the first ever multi-media campaign on institutional delivery and birth spacing. She has managed large scale social audits and published a major study on tribal health seeking behavior. In the early stage of her career, Shivani worked as the Program Officer for Johns Hopkins University/ Centre for Communication Programs and with J.Walter Thompson on numerous social sector communication campaigns.

 

She holds a Master's degree in Business Economics and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Delhi University.

 

   

Deepa Hari is an independent consultant based in Mumbai. She joined the Indian Revenue Service more than thirty years ago, but quit within a few years to work in publishing and subsequently in the social sector, particularly in education and communications. She has rich experience in curriculum design, and has co-written and edited educational materials for both urban and rural audiences, including teachers, teacher educators and community workers, on themes ranging from gender and sexuality to financial literacy, natural resources and human rights. She has also designed and conducted training programmes for a variety of groups.

 

At The Communication Hub, Deepa has worked on projects related to instructional design, and communication on maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and trafficking in women and girls. She is currently part of the team involved in a partner landscaping study of stakeholders working in advocacy and communications in the area of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health and nutrition.

 

Dr. Tarini Bahadur is a sociologist with a doctoral degree and several years of progressive experience in the social sector. She started her career with the Indian Market Research Bureau and went on to become a Founder Member of MARG Marketing & Research Group. Tarini has been an active member of the Delhi Council for Social Welfare for over a decade, an organization where she has held several positions culminating in that of Honorary General Secretary. She is also a member of the Indian Council for Child Welfare. She has several publications to her credit and has worked as part-time editor for Social Science Press, among other organizations. At The Communication Hub, Tarini has brought her considerable research and review experience to bear on projects including the development of the communication strategy for urban sanitation as well as a landscaping study of organizations working in strategic communication on reproductive health.

 

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.

 

 

Raghu Roy, Advisor, Social Sector Research, is a senior social and market research professional in India. Raghu had been the CEO of Operations Research Group (ORG, taken over by A C Nielsen). He has been engaged on projects supported by UNDP, World Bank, NACO, USAID, several government departments as well as other multi-lateral and bilateral donors. The social sectors and areas where he has worked intensively include Water Supply and Sanitation (for UNICEF, and the Indo-Dutch Project), Reproductive and Child Health (for DFID, DKT India, PFI and UNICEF), Baseline Studies, Formative Research, Communication Needs Assessments, Communication Testing, HIV/AIDS (for USAID, Heroes Project, DFID etc.) and others. Raghu provided the research and M&E inputs to the design of communication strategies developed by The Communication Hub for UNICEF, DoPT, BMGF, Dept of MSME, and CARE as well as an ongoing project for FHI. He was recently invited as a panelist on UNICEF's Distinguished Speaker series to present his model for monitoring behaviour change communications. Raghu currently is the MD of MaRS Monitoring & Research Systems Private Limited.

 

 

Shabana Patel is qualitative research professional associated with TCH. She has worked in sectors including RMNCHA+N, HIV/AIDS, Sanitation, and other public health issues in geographic regions across the country. Shabana has held the position of Secretary of the Network in Maharashtra of People Living with HIV (NMP+) and has conceptualized and led the development of intervention projects that address the sexual and reproductive health needs of women and young people. She has attended and spoken at a variety on forums on HIV, in India and abroad.

 

2007 The Communication Hub