The Committee against Torture is one of a few non-profit organizations in Russia that help victims of torture. It faces two major issues: the first one, the low level of awareness about the problem in the society, naturally leads to the second one, the low number of donations needed by the Committee to pay for medical care for the victims.

Police violence is one of the most sensitive issues that are taboo in modern Russia. 1 out of every 10 Russian citizens has experienced torture at the hands of law enforcement (Levada Analytical Center). 3 out of 4 people who file a complaint against torture in Russia are refused investigation(Committee against torture). Police violence occurs in varying circumstances, from squashing peaceful protests to boosting crime clearance rate, or controlling prisoners in jails. The Committee against Torture is one of a few organizations in Russia that help victims of torture.

Russian Yoga School is a social project concerning torture in Russia. It is a series of videos in which well-known Russian actors and musicians describe widespread forms of torture as if they were yoga exercises. This way of presentation was chosen due to the fact that law enforcers cynically give the forms of torture the kinds of innocent names (“Swallow”, “Baby Elephant”, “Songbird”) better suited to yoga poses than brutal forms of abuse. It is this horrific paradox that the project’s creators have underlined. The videos appeared on the news website Meduza.io alongside stories told by actual torture victims.

The scripts are based on true stories of torture victims who suffered the same treatment as shown in the videos. To quote the director: “For this grave and difficult subject, it was important to find the right visual approach so that the final result wouldn’t scare the audience away from watching.”

To boost the project, we decided to bring in influencers and collaborated with the news site preferred by the relevant audience (Meduza.io), which added credibility to the stories and stressed the importance of the subject.

The videos were published as a special project on Meduza.io (an independent news site popular with younger audiences) together with an editorial article about torture featuring quotes from actual torture victims. This increased the viewers’ trust in the information provided in our videos. Besides, Meduza published a direct link for donations to the foundation and promoted the project on social networks for a week. Meanwhile, the Committee against Torture sent out emails related to the project to its subscribers.

In the first 10 days, the Committee Against Torture received 450 000 rubles in donations. Over a third of those who donated have pledged to do so monthly, which means 160 000 rubles each month. All the money will go towards medical support and rehabilitation, as well as conducting of expert examinations necessary for the victims of torture and other criminal violence in the hands of state agents.

The yoga-tutorial format provided a way to introduce this difficult issue and kick off discussion of torture in the media and on social networks. Overall, the project has reached over 13 000 000 people. On Meduza.io, the story has received 4 times the average number of views for the site.