My first CSR event

Hey everyone!

Already my 3rd week of internship during which everyone in the department was really busy with the official launch of one of their major CSR project.

After the recent reshaping of the communication department at the MCB several new changes were made namely the allocation of a more considerable budget to CSR. Many CSR projects are targeting foremost children, unfortunately I was involved in only one CSR due to lack of time…however it proved to be really interesting to me. During the whole week, I worked on the brochures that will be distributed during the event and I forwarded invitations to journalists. I also drafted the media release on the event which will be sent to different media outlets afterwards.

The project is called MCB Football Academy which targets 5 of the poorest regions of the island. It aims to use football as a means to encourage uneducated children to go to school. The strategy is very simple: Open football clubs in regions where poverty prevails and where many parents do not take education as a serious matter, hence the kids do not bother to go to school. The project targets children ageing 7-11 years old. If they want to enroll in the club, they must go to school and if they are not, MCB provides them with remedial courses. Children who do not go to school are not allowed in the football club unless they are interested to follow the courses offered by the organisation.

The official launch of this project took place at the very first football club which started its activities at St-Hilaire, quite a deprived region where poverty and illiteracy prevail. The whole communication department arrived there early to set everything. There was a press conference before the inauguration between the head of the media relations and members of the press. We were a bit disappointed as only two journalists were present to cover the event. The week following the event, different media outlets which were absent for the launch contacted the department to gather information on this new CSR project as after all some of them were keen to write on it. The media release was forwarded to them attached with pictures from the event. When I did media clippings the next days, it was interesting to notice that different newspapers treated the matter differently. In some newspapers, the event was in the sports section while in others it was in community welfare.

Well basically that’s how my third week ended…
Good luck to everyone for their report as only a couple of weeks are left….
Farah