By: Denisse Descamps Tofani
Having the opportunity to intern with the New Orleans Abortion Fund this past summer has been a rollercoaster of emotions. At the beginning of the summer, transitioning to a fully-remote position, unaware of the exact parameters of the internship and how I would be able to navigate such a complicated time was exhilarating, but frankly, quite terrifying. As the summer is quickly coming to an end, I have taken time to reflect on my time at NOAF, and how I can continue learning with my incredible colleagues and interns as I extend my time to continue this internship to the fall semester. 
When I first interviewed with Steffani Bangel, the executive director at the New Orleans Abortion Fund, she mentioned starting a digital organizing campaign with an intern in northern Louisiana; although excited, I was unaware of how, in such a short period, we would be able to create a campaign that was successful. It was difficult to conceptualize the scope of our work. My co-organizer Cassidy and I began creating graphics, toolkits, reaching out to different organizations and individuals, and overall working restlessly until we officially launched the campaign. After our first post went viral, ultimately leading to important organizations and individuals within the reproductive rights and justice world to notice us, I learned three very important things:
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Always create original and relevant content. Cassidy and I work hours on end researching and creating graphics that are informational, but still appeal to a young audience. And it has paid off. Our first viral post, “Language to Avoid When Talking About Abortion” has been re-shared by pages like the Iowa Abortion Access Fund and Shout Your Abortion. Even when it seems like we are working towards nothing, it always pays off.
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Give people a platform to share their opinions and ideas. One of our goals with the campaign was to give young people a platform to talk about abortion access, and to uplift the voices of young people to build collective power.
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There will always be people that are misinformed. As an Instagram account that focuses on why abortion is essential healthcare, we receive negative and hateful comments all the time, and it is important to provide factual information, and provide as many resources to individuals so they can make their own informed opinions. However, it’s important to not get discouraged by misinformed and misguided comments.