For national organisations and colleges
You don’t need a large team, budget or communications department. Choose a role that fits, use what’s provided, and be part of a shared international campaign.
Start with people’s lived experience
Many people who could benefit from seeing an acupuncturist never consider it, because they don’t know it could help them. They are not waking up looking for an acupuncturist. They are looking for relief, hope and their life back.
People don’t wake up wanting acupuncture. They wake up wanting their life back.
For World Acupuncture Awareness Day 2026 we are collecting and sharing the origin stories of acupuncturists and student acupuncturists whose own experience of seeing an acupuncturist inspired them to train. They first met the profession not as experts, but as ordinary people looking for help.
Two positions at once
People are highly alert to being marketed to. Our storytellers speak from two places at once:
- As acupuncturists or student acupuncturists, they bring knowledge, training and credibility.
- As former patients, they speak as ordinary people who were once looking for help.
The audience hears: “I am just like you. I was where you are. My choice to work with an acupuncturist helped me change my life.”
The stories show an active choice, not a passive cure. They don’t rely on clinical claims, and they are much harder to dismiss than an abstract argument about acupuncture.
Expertise+empathy+human depth=trust
The benefits
For national organisations
- Offer members a meaningful, emotionally engaging campaign
- Demonstrate visible leadership within the profession
- Increase member engagement, confidence and professional pride
- High-quality advocacy resources without a large workload
- Stronger national visibility through an ETCMA-led international campaign
- Reinforce the value of belonging to a community committed to high standards
- Build longer-term advocacy capacity across your membership
- Achieve collectively the reach that would be hard to buy through marketing
For colleges and schools
- Showcase your students and the journeys that brought them into acupuncture
- Strengthen students’ professional identity and sense of belonging
- Demonstrate the human value and purpose of acupuncture education
- Increase your visibility through compelling student stories
- Help attract future students by showing why people are inspired to train
- Connect your school more visibly with ETCMA and the wider profession
- Give students a supported first step into communicating publicly and professionally
Start at the level that works for you
No one is expected to do everything. Take part by simply sharing what’s ready-made, or step into a wider coordinating role.
National organisations
Amplify → Mobilise → Coordinate
Your national reach, professional networks and coordination.
Level 1Repost
- Repost our ready-made content
- Share it in your newsletter and on your website
- Point members and colleges to the invitation
- Repost origin stories as they come in
Level 2Contribute
Everything above, plus:
- Invite acupuncturists and colleges to join in
- Encourage strong origin-story submissions
- Translate materials into your national language
- Encourage members to post or repost
Level 3Advocate
Everything above, plus:
- Promote the campaign nationally
- Create extra national-language content
- Run national or local World Acupuncture Awareness Day activity
- Share what you learn back with ETCMA
- Join an ETCMA working group
Colleges and schools
Inform → Activate → Showcase
Connect the campaign to your students, staff and future acupuncturists.
Level 1Repost
- Share the invitation with students and staff
- Repost our ready-made content
- Promote World Acupuncture Awareness Day through your usual channels
- Point interested students to the story guide
Level 2Contribute
Everything above, plus:
- Find and encourage students or teachers with an origin story
- Support them through the submission
Level 3Advocate
Everything above, plus:
- Build a coordinated collection of student stories
- Advocate for World Acupuncture Awareness Day independently, including to other institutions
- Use the campaign to engage prospective students and the public
Pick what’s relevant to your level
ETCMA builds the shared framework. New materials will appear here as they are released, and on our WhatsApp channel first.
Story and messaging
Ready to share
Guidance and support
Shared messages, local voices
- ETCMA, national organisation and college channels
- Acupuncturist and student accounts
- YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn
- Native-language versions, plus subtitled or translated content
ETCMA supplies shared messages and English-language hashtags. You adapt freely to your own language, audience and context.
More than a one-off campaign
Each year we build on the participation, confidence, resources and relationships from the last: more organisations and colleges involved, a growing library of authentic stories, and a community that is more confident and capable after every World Acupuncture Awareness Day.
Small actions build confidence. Confidence drives action. Action builds experience, which develops advocates.
Take your first step today
Confirm your interest with the ETCMA working group
Nominate a contact person
Choose your level, and share this toolkit with your network