Whoever said it was easy must have been on the wrong side of Public Relations but again, who said it wouldn't be quite an experience.
During the period I was an intern, I was reminded a lot of almost everything that is PR related that I have learnt in class. In my placement journey, we dealt so much with corporate social responsibility (CSR). According to (European Commission, 2011) corporate social responsibility is the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society. And to fully meet their social responsibility, enterprises should have in place a process to integrate social, environmental, ethical human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders.
In any organisation, key publics matter and should be made to feel so. Since the Government of Botswana is entitled to take care of the nation in support of their vision and mission, Office of the President has a responsibility to the nation and are doing their level best to show they care. This organisation serves the nation hence socially responsible.
It is not just a matter of good deeds for the nation, but OP also gets feedback through interviews which are normally carried out in a variety of events as a way of finding out how the people of Botswana feel about certain things hence a two-way communication.
During my fantastic experience, as a PR intern in OP, I have learnt that in every two months there is a community service day event, held in random parts of Botswana as a way to extend a helping hand to different communities. It is with great pleasure to mention that i was fortunate enough to have been involved in the planning of the February 1st 2013 event. The target audience for this event was the President, members of the parliament and communities at large.
For two weeks I joined two PRO's as we went to different villages in the outskirt of Gaborone (The capital city of Botswana). During these trips we went to Village Kgotlas (traditional law court), Government owned schools, post offices, shelters, charity homes and local clinics. The point was to check if the buildings were in good condition or if workers had any complaints of their working conditions.
I had the opportunity to see the sufferings and joy of my fellow country men.All this made me realise that being a government employee especially in the PR department could not be easy. Somehow we did not have enough time on our hands so we had to utilize the time we had, so trust me when I tell you time management is one important aspect of Public Relations.
Since we did not have much time to come up with something big, and two weeks down the drain, we settled for the best option, a park (Tsholofelo park) in Gaborone. The park is where an African of Tswana origin who died in 1830, El Negro, was buried (El Negro's body was stolen and has been displayed for 170years in a museum in Spain before it was discovered and sent back to Botswana for a proper burial).
Activities of the day were, tree planting, foundation laying, slashing of grass E.T.C. while ministers and the president took part in doing all those.
Community farmers were encouraged to come and sell their fruits and vegetables as a way of helping themselves. At the end of the day, the job was well done and the event was a success. It was indeed an eye opening experience on the PR industry. I felt honored though to have interacted with ministers but mostly the President himself.
Until next time, keep reading and enjoying my experiences with me.
Below are pictures from the community service day:
Community farmers were encouraged to come and sell their fruits and vegetables as a way of helping themselves. At the end of the day, the job was well done and the event was a success. It was indeed an eye opening experience on the PR industry. I felt honored though to have interacted with ministers but mostly the President himself.
Until next time, keep reading and enjoying my experiences with me.
Below are pictures from the community service day:
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| Minister of Education, Hon. Mrs. Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi Trimming a tree at Tsholofelo Park |
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| Right: His Excellency the president of Botswana Lt. Genereal Seretse Khama Ian Khama with one of the elders at Tsholofelo Park |
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| Some of the Community members slashing the grass at Tsholofelo Park during the community service day |
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| H.E with some ministers slashing grass at Tsholofelo park |
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| Ministers at work with the foundation mixture during the community service day |
2 comments:
Hello Neo,
I enjoyed reading your post. It is insightful and serves as an opportunity to enlighten local community of your country of what the President's office does to give back to the community. You raised an important that you learnt to get first hand revelation of how the citizens suffered and survived. That is how you learnt about your key publics, so that you can understand them and know their needs. I can say that it was a good experience to learn to processes taken before a CSR project is executed. A quality that can help you with forecast accuracy next you plan another CSR project.
Hi Neo,
Good job on your post, it was very informative and gives a great insight into a whole new side of public relations that isn't often shown. Congratulations on being a part of planning such a great event, definitely one to add to the portfolio. It's great to hear that community service events are being held and are helping out the community!!
Keep up the great work and well done!
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