Everything comes to an end...

Hello Bloggers,

My internship at Amnesty International Mauritius Section has come to an end. I have had an enriching experience over there. I never thought that I could have learned so much about PR in an NGO.

But indeed, I should put emphasis on the fact that NGO use a lot of Public Relations in its day-to-day activities. PR is used to a great extent at Amnesty. I am extremely lucky and proud to have had my work experience at Amnesty. There was no better place where I could have got so much experience. I have not only learned but I also got the golden opportunity to exert my knowledge of PR and develop my capabilities as a future PR practitioner.

I do remember that during one of the PR module, we were taught how to make checklist. However, I never imagined that checklist could be needful in this modern world of new technologies. With reference to one of my particular tasks, I not only got to use checklist but I also discovered its importance.

As a PR intern, I got a lot of tasks to work on. Promotion was one of them. I initially had to promote the new courses offered by Amnesty. It was quite challenging at the beginning but I managed to persuade a good number of people to enrol for the courses by the end of the day. My colleague was actually very happy with the result.

NGO as everyone knows depends a lot on funds gained from membership fees, donations, CSR funds and fund-raising activities. So, I have tried to my level best to engage people in becoming members of Amnesty during the different events that took place. I also made sure that members were paying their membership fees and thus kept the files updated. In doing so, I have helped to make sure that Amnesty was having enough funds for its forthcoming activities. Moreover, together with my fellow colleagues, we have also organised a fund-raising activity where funds were raised for the Dignity Campaign. I should point out that one of my class mate namely Smriti was there as intern also and we had work together to make this activity a success. We have actually raised more than Rs 2000 just the two of us in one day. I have noted that there should always be a motive behind each fund-raising ceremony. One cannot ask money just like that, it would not be ethical. I have also noted that the police should be made aware of the activity beforehand. Money raised should normally be contributed to a particular campaign. In this case, the money will be contributed to the Dignity group of Amnesty for a special campaign, ‘Aidez les pauvres à sortir de la pauvreté’.

During my internship, I also had a go at designing pages in newspapers and newsletters. I always liked colours and design. I thus took that opportunity given to me by my colleagues to create really amazing pages and invitations. I had lots of fun at it. It was really one of my most enjoyable tasks and I got to learned how to use Photoshop at the same time. I also had to work alongside the designer of Le Défi Quotidien for the design of the pages.

PR comprises a lot of things. I had a go at mostly everything during my placement at Amnesty. The list below will give you a brief overview of the OTHER tasks I was assigned during my placement.
• Prepare Fact Sheet
• Assist and prepare minutes of meetings
• Research work
• Appreciation of website
• Prepare packages for members
• Compile and update articles from Google alerts
• Make up the archives of international newsletter
• Compile local newsletter
• Take pictures
• Help in different events
I would like to thank my colleagues, Ashnavi and Rindra for their support. They have helped and guided me a lot during my internship. I got to learn a lot from them. They have not only corrected my mistakes but they have also pushed me forward and towards new initiatives each time. I really do owe them for what they did for me.

I am now more prepare to join the PR industry.

Hope that your internship was great as much as mine.

Best of luck for your reports guys.

Darla Seevathian
14212763
CTI