What a warm welcome and some PR lessons to care for

Hi, everyone. I am Joyce Ah Fong from Charles Telfair Institute, Mauritius.

Hope that your internship is going on just fine.

I got a lot to catch up on my blogging because I got torticollis and it was impossible for me to write my blogs. But, from the diary I have kept with every activities I do during my internship, I will be able to relate everything. So, this blog will be a little bit lengthy.

It was on the 20th July, I first started my internship at PILS (Prevention, Information et Lutte contre le Sida) which is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) brawling to help people with AIDS as well as to mass informed the public about the virus and about its preventive measures. Why this NGO was formed? There was a real need for a structure to help many dying people of AIDS in Mauritius as well to break the wall of silence around this disease which was taboo at that time. Nowadays, thanks to the various involvements of PILS through its perseverance and various campaigns through the mass media which it uses a lot, this is no longer the case. This will further be developed in my other blogs.

The memory of the first day is still vivid in my head, because I was totally surprised by all this gentleness and welcoming smiles. I was first welcomed by the assistant director and responsible of fundraising that showed me the whereabouts of the building as well as the various people present. Then, my supervisor further presented me to the other departments and people who came in afterwards.

I was totally surprised that they knew my name and that I will be doing a one-month internship in the organisation. I could see that the internal communication was good at PILS as even the non-staff knew that I was coming. The profuse warm welcome has really touched me. This has eased some of my apprehension as it is the first time that I am working in the PR world. Good communication has always been said to be important and it is good that this works just fine for PILS.

My primary task during my internship is to create a formal database contact of media as well as other organisations related to PILS as the existing one was very basic and lack information. Hence, a lot has to be done. My secondary task will be to help for the event of SUPERTOTE, a racing event dedicated to raise funds for AIDS.

Throughout the day, I have analysed and reached the conclusion that the working environment was good and relaxed compared to the PR lectures where we were told that there was a lot of pressure and stress in the daily activities of an organisation. PILS was a refreshing and friendly one as everyone care for their teammates and always asking about their news and that of their family.

Even though workers not forming part of the same department was always eager to help and asking if I was fine. This was very touchy and I really appreciated it.

To come up with my first work, I found it challenging as I had to find out the contact of journalist that the organisation did not have and to contact them personally.

I had to write up a script before. I still remember my PR classes where we were told to rehearse our script before talking to a journalist. I have well learned my lesson and rehearsed it several times before talking to the journalists. The difficulty was to have the journalist on the phone as many were not here. So the lesson to take is to persevere, persevere till you reach your goal.

It is true that the contact list has to be updated at least twice per year. The reason is that I have found through my calls that many journalists were no longer working at the media agency written on the contact list PILS has. Hence, it is very advisable to call and to make new contacts so as the information that your company wants to convey is reached to the right person. If this is not done, in case you have an important press conference, your fax or email that you have sent to the contact person will not reached the good person. So, this is a lesson to be taken care of seriously. This is what I have learned in my first day of internship.

Hence, buddies, keep up with the hard work.

Will keep you afresh of any news,

Regards
Joyce