THE FINISHING POINT

Iam glad to say this placement has been a great experience to me, both personnally and professionally and hope everybody enjoyed or is still enjoyin it.I have been able to master the PR skills needed at work specifically dealing with the government.I also had the opportunity to enrich my general knowledge through enteracting with the community and other peole from different organisations.The difference between PR learnd at the university and PR at work place is really incredible.The experince has allowed me to evaluate myself as potential pr person and i have identified my major strengths and weakness which i will be able to work on them.In overall the placement was a fantastic experince with so much positive outcomes.At the moment i feel ready and willing to work in the pr department of any company as i have been able to get a good insight of hands on experience.

During my last days at BNBTS preparations for the world blood donor day to be celebrated on June 14 were put in place.The venue was still to be confirmed as letters were already sent.

DONATE BLOOD AND SAVE LIVES

MOVING ON

Being part of BNBTS was now interesting as i got used to the enviroment and was by then comfortable with everyone.Schools in Botswana are the major sources of blood.So far the safest blood is taken from the schools and at BNBTS pledge 25 club was established to mobilize students in blood donation by peer promoters.The goal of the club is to educate,motivate,recruit and retain young blood donors and to promote positive,safe life style behaviour to achieve a cohort of regular, safe, non- remunerated blood donors and a decrease in the number of HIV among young people.To keep the clubs active i worked on organising workshops to give the members updates on recent issues dealing with blood donation.

Since schools are the major blood donors a schedule for all secondary schools for the first quater of the year was made.A list of schools according to their district area and a date to visit them for bleeding sessions as well as the motivational talks.During this time we worked on delivering the schedules in schools and having discussions with the heads of departments especially the guidance and conselling department.We also delivered our posters which pledge 25 members helped with putting them up as well as distributing the flyers.

I keep saying we because at BNBTS is all about team work.In everything i did i was never alone.

Employees are the important assets of the company. Team spirit determines the development of the organization and the employees contribution should be acknowledged. They are the key decision makers of all the activities that affect the organization. The management is given support to motivate employees to perform their duties accordingly.BNBTS ensures that all employees are well informed prior to any activity being carried out so that they can have the chance to bring forward their views and suggestions. The organization wants to strengthen its employee relations by allowing open exchange of information, timely and consistent messaging across sources.

MEDIA RELATIONS

HELLO PEOPLE

I decided to go through this one as i have seen that it really worked for BNBTS.The media is used as a tool to generate better external relationships and garner positive media coverage.Media relations has been useful to BNBTS as a non-commercual organisation as all the three communication media which are press, television and radio were often much more willing to give editorial coverage to activites than to those of commercial oraganisations. During the second week of my internship we were working on publishing an advert on the national telephone directory of 2009."ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES BOTSWANA.."The advert was meant to create awareness on the public about blood donation. By rolling the sleeve means being ready to give blood.

During the week i also visited Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Botswana Defence Force headquaters.I met with the public relations officers and discussed the importance of donating blood hence reaching an agreement to involve their staff during working hours in a bleeding session. The dates for the session were set and as a result we managed to get 70 units of blood. This was not bad at all. Before the bleeding sessions i had to go around delivering posters so that the public can be reminded of the sessions.

Still in media relations at BNBTS we found that house publications are essential to our survival. We have internal publications that serve as a publicity medium to project the organisation to outside target groups as well as performing the internal role. As a non commercial organisation we kept an active internal communication programme so essential .

GETTING IT STARTED

Well its all start with the public relations writing techniques.Good cover letter and the resume.Got attached in the Ministry of Health in Botswana National Blood Transfusion Services (BNBTS). BNBTS is a goverment oranisation and it is not for profit.It is mandated with the responsibility of collecting and supplying safe and adequate blood for use in the hospitals .BNBTS is charged with the responsibility of collection,testng and distribution of blood and blood products throughout the contry.To be specific i was placed in the recruitment unit where blood donors were educated on positive lifestyles and how to prevent spread of HIV. Basically public relations is all about communication.The first day at work i was introduced to the staff and was shown all different offices in the building.I was then given a brief of the work done in the organisation by the manager.I found it really interesting as it involves the community at large.The organisation also have different partners like Botswana Family Welfare Association (BOFWA),Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCAIP), Youlth Health Organisation (YOHO), Safe Blood For Africa and the World Health Organation (WHO).

THINK BIG,START SMALL,ACT NOW.....DONATE BLOOD AND SAVE LIVES