Welcome on Board with T1 Diams

Hi everyone,

Since the first day of my internship, I had the feeling that a great and beautiful adventure was waiting for me ahead. I was really motivated to apply all that I have learnt during my public relation modules. I did my internship in a nonprofit organization named T1 Diams, which supports type 1 diabetes children in Mauritius and Rodrigues.I knew a bit about diabetes that is when there is an excess sugar in the blood but then I learnt that diabetes Type 1 and type 2 are different. I asked myself what’s the difference between the two and what is type 1 all about. With the help of my supervisor, I learnt that diabetes type 1 can occur at any age, but generally it is diagnosed in children, adolescents or young adults. It results from autoimmune destruction of insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas, that is, a lack of insulin leads to increased blood and urine glucose. It can be fatal unless treated with insulin. I was assigned to plan out an awareness campaign about diabetes type 1 in its everyday environment and try to make people not indifferent to the condition of living of these people. The different tasks that I needed to complete during my internship are as follows:

• Media clipping

• The research-method (Surveys)

• The client Brief

• Liaison between Stakeholders such as sponsors, advertising companies, etc.

• Work on the key message and the concept for the posters

• Writing of the Brochure

• Organizing the Lip dub

• Press Release

• Planning and implementation plan

• Control process

The awareness target public will be everyone around the diabetes patient which will be his parents, brothers or sisters, friends, family members, doctors to resume out the whole society. Everyone must be concerned about the diabetes type 1 condition of life. As I was in charge of the campaign I had the task to make the different stakeholders understand who we are targeting and what we have to achieve.

Time management is an important aspect that I have learnt to handle. With an effective planning I have been able to manage responsibilities and tasks as to meet out the deadlines. I have also planned out photo shoot for the brochure. I love photography; this it was quite easy to plan it from the stage of contacting the photograph, the children, and parents and organizing the décor. It was a fantastic experience sharing out with everyone.

After some research and reflection around different diabetes campaign, I finally choose the key message for the awareness campaign which is “Ça me regarde” , one of Yannick Noah’s songs. It was just what I want to imply that diabetes type 1 concerns everyone in Mauritius. For the next blog post I will talk about the posters design, the preparation for the launching and the Flag Day. Until next time let’s enjoy our work placement.

Cheers! Priscila