Why use grassroots comics?

Bring stories to life with simple pictures

Grassroots comics dramatise specific issues and bring them into live debate within the community.

Grassroots comics have been successfully used in campaigns involving human rights, health education, corruption, environmental concerns, and many others. They can be employed at different levels of campaigning, from peer group distribution within a local community to mass distribution efforts.

The comics are most of the time directly related to some activity of an NGO or a community group, but there are also works from individuals who just want to tell their own stories. Especially children often depict the issues that affect their lives in a moving way.

Since comics stick out, they are attractive for NGOs, which always have to look for new and innovative ways of communicating with their target audience. Furthermore, to distribute comics in communities is not very expensive — pens, papers and access to a copying machine are all that is required.

The voice from the streets

The media in general tend to look at the larger picture and pay most of their attention to political and business stories. The stories of common people are much less visible.

If we look at life through the eyes of a community activist we see that mainstream media rarely reflects the views an activist
wants to put across.

Because grassroots comics are created by common people and especially by community activists, they give a first hand view — a “first voice” — on the issues in the community. They are an empowering form of expression in that they give ordinary people a chance to direct debate.

Comics can also promote communal understanding across ethnic lines. When people tell their own stories on a local level, they can reach out to other groups in the society that have false ideas or bad opinions of them. Genuine, heartfelt stories are convincing and they have credibility. These comics can be distributed by organisations working with ethnic, political or communal problems.

Speak truth to those in power

Comics can be an effective means of speaking truth to power. People in decision-making positions often have very little direct contact with grassroots organisations or local activists.

By using the attention-grabbing medium of comics, these activists can send their stories on specific issues directly to the decision-makers. Busy politicians and officials may welcome the opportunity to read a comic rather than to look through another pile of papers.

This is because the drama of the story is captured succinctly in the comic format, and engages the reader and makes the point.

The story begins at a bar, where
the girl has got so drunk that she asks a boy to escort her home. He
diverts them to a guest house. In the morning she asks if he used a
condom, which he says he did not, because he had none. The last panel
shows what the situation was after ten years.