PR Internship Reflective Blog 2

Welcome to PR Internship - YOUR opportunity to put everything you have learned over the past years at university into practice and to get a thorough insight into what public relations is like "in the real world". This Blog allows you to reflect on your experiences, share insights with other students across campuses and to possibly give advice and support to fellow students. Please also see http://printernship-reflections.blogspot.com.au/ for more reflections

Showing posts with label #womenempowerment #communityoutreach. Show all posts

Thursday, January 29, 2015

It's Not What It Seems..You Have Got To Look Deeper..

Dear fellow PR Interns,

It has been a few weeks since I started my internship at Interhill Group, in a small oil town called Miri. It is located on the eastern part of Malaysia. Interhill Group, though they call themselves a property development company, it is actually involved in the timber trade.

I am an animal activist and an environmentalist. "So why are you working there?

This is the question I have been getting from the people around me.

I remember a wise PR lecturer once said, "if you do not agree with a company's way of business, why not go in and change it."

Those words were constantly juggling through my thoughts. The struggling decision to work with Interhill or not was something I then understood from what we have learnt in the PR units of making ethical decisions. The question was, do I work with them and protect the big corporate greed and bend my believes or work somewhere else. Here is a link to guide us PR practitioners into make the right decisions http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/#.VMrugWiUdmw

I then decided to research the company further to help me conclude my choices. Wonderful enough, I found that they have a CSR department, which is my area of interest. Most people would think that a large corporation having a CSR department, is just to cover up the ugly truth of their wrong doings. However, during my interview with the manager of this department, Agnes, she glows when she talks about helping the indigenous community of Sarawak (Penan Community, who are the last hunters and gatherers), the orphans, the wild life animals and more.

The projects Interhill group has initiated includes: The After School Project, which I am personally involved in, Local Community Support, Women Empowerment Programs and Education Initiative. All the above projects target the less privileged children such as orphans and also the rural indigenous communities.

Interhill Group also focuses on Women Empowerment which I personally worked on.

It is very evident that the CSR department leads the corporation and their involvement with the timber trade are strictly being bounded with ethical guidelines!

With that, I have decided to join the company. I am always passionate about social work and I am truly happy and joyed that I am able to perform my PR skills in my area of interest!

I am glad to have found a company who looks up to their CSR department and we are blessed to have a manager who allows us to come up with new ideas on how to perform good deeds to help the animals and the less fortunate.

I will be organizing a few events for the orphans in Miri under the After School Project and I am very excited!

Till next time! Stay tuned for the next update on how my event went!

If anyone is interested in checking out the company that I am working with, here is the link:http://www.interhill.com.my/

Below are a few photos so u guys can see what we are involved in!