My name is Latifah and for the last three months I have been interning for the Government Communications unit at the Ministry of Energy and Minerals of the United Republic of Tanzania. When it came to deciding where I wanted to pursue my internship there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to do it in my home country as that is where I see myself working in the long run and so I wanted to see first hand how the Public Relations industry worked there.
For those that are curious, Tanzania is in the eastern part of Africa, bordered by Kenya and Uganda.
To be honest, I was very nervous on my first day of interning. I kept wondering whether I would be able to meet the high standards of work as it was an established office with years of experience. Although my boss and my co-workers were incredibly accommodative, I learnt early on that it was a busy office and on that day itself I was assigned to cover the '5th Annual Canada - Tanzania Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility', on behalf of the organisation.
Upon my arrival, I was completely caught off guard. For the longest time, I had the idea that Public Relations was more of a 'behind the scenes' profession, all about research and writing, where you lay the ground work and let the spokespeople do the talking. Turns out I was very wrong. I realized that as a Public Relations person you have to be able to get up and fearlessly take perfect pictures even in crowds of hundreds; you have be able to ask the right questions to the right people so as to gain sufficient information for your media release; you have to able to confidently introduce yourself and liaise with the media, all so that at the end of the day your organisation's work can be communicated to the public.
This realization made me go about my work much more confidently, and although my pictures could have been a little better that day, I really saw first hand the importance of Public Relations personnel.
You can see some of the pictures I took for the event on page 8 of the Ministry's Weekly News Bulletin below:
https://mem.go.tz/mem-news-bulletin-105th-edition/
Until next time.
Latifah Mzee Hamis Salim Boma
17223946/ 7E3A1749
Curtin University, Sarawak Campus
