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Read more stories from World Antibiotic Awareness Week
Superheroes Against Superbugs
Comics are the unlikely superpower, helping children unleash their inner-heroes in the struggle to build awareness around antibiotic resistance in India.
A unique initiative from the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance and World Comics India, The Superheroes Against Superbugs program was built around the premise that young minds are particularly capable of influencing behaviors and bringing transformative change when equipped with the right tools.
A comical approach
World Comics India (WCI) is a collective of grassroots activists, cartoonists, artists, development journalists, students and other like-minded people using ‘comics as a communication tool’. A tool deemed perfect for talking about antibiotic resistance.
“Comics have huge potential to be used as a powerful tool for communication beyond simply telling stories around superheroes and mythology,” said Mr. Mr.Sharad Sharma, founder of World Comics India. “There is also a unique opportunity for self –expression too. It’s not often that activism can be so artistic! They are easy to understand, easy to produce and they are fun!”
As part of a multiday programme, children took part in an interactive workshop educating them on microbes, infections, and antibiotics, and later developed creative concepts to initiate conversations on antibiotic resistance. The children were encouraged to weave their own stories around the issues of antibiotic resistance and turn these into comics and animations.
The advantages of this approach, says Dr Shahid Jameel, CEO of the India Alliance, comes with the simplification of such complex issues.
“Children in their early teens are eager to learn. They can not only understand the complexities of antibiotic resistance but are also capable of influencing others and helping spread awareness.”
Comic creation in Indian communities has already proved a successful means of awareness-raising through other campaigns, including Human Rights and other Health initiatives, now confronting the issue of antibiotic resistance.
India and AMR
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents an increasing threat to the global community; India in particular is on record with the one of the highest burdens of bacterial infections globally, across both human and animal sectors. Of even greater concern is the emergence of resistance in India that also extends beyond commonly prescribed antibiotics, to newer and more expensive drugs.
In April 2017, India launched its National Action Plan on AMR, with the goal to effectively combat antimicrobial resistance in India, and contribute towards the global efforts to tackle this public health threat. A major part of this recognizes the importance of improving awareness and understanding of AMR. India committed as a short term goal, to assessing and documenting current understandings of AMR, as well as implementing communications and education strategies over time for improved awareness.
Along with other objectives based on the Global Action Plan on AMR, India’s national plan also highlights a need to strengthen its national leadership on AMR, including international, national and state level collaborations.
Heroic next steps
The success of the Superheroes Against Superbugs campaign has shown the simplest ideas can influence even the most complicated of issues. And they’re not stopping here.
Organizers believe the next steps should be a collaboration with research institutes cross-country and the development of societal outreach programs in schools nationwide. From here the comics could even be used by health ministries for possible national AMR awareness campaigns.
“We believe it would be possible to scale-up the project nationally while also encouraging researchers and institutes to get involved in the much-needed societal discourse on antibiotic resistance,” said Dr. Jameel of India Alliance.
There is also the possibility of collating the children’s comics into a book, or animation film, to showcase the work of the school-aged heroes helping to stop antibiotic resistance.
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