Hi everyone. I hope your internship is going on smoothly. I am currently completing my PR placement at Amnesty International Mauritius Section (AIMS).
Amnesty International is a movement of people campaigning for recognised human rights to be valued and protected around the world. It is a democratic movement, independent of any government, political ideology, economic interest and/or religion. The movement is set out to improve and contribute fairly to the protection of human rights. Amnesty International has over 2.2 millions of members, supporters, and subscribers in over 150 countries and territories, in every region of the world, including the small island of Mauritius.
Being a part of the Amnesty International team was an amazing experience which taught me a lot about who I am and who I want to be, in a professional world and as an individual.
Working with Amnesty International was far from being easy. First, I had to learn a lot about Human Rights and what it involves to be a Human Rights Defender and Activist. For instance, if someone does not believe that death penalty should be abolished in all societies, he or she must not engage as a PR professional in the Human Rights fields because working in a NGO is more than performing a series of tasks and duties. Working in a NGO means believing in the organization’s vision and mission with all your heart and soul and devoting your time fighting to communicate them to the general public who is most of the time really skeptical about your intentions.
When working for a NGO, you have the opportunity to make a difference in an area you care about though difficulty and problems are omnipresent. Amnesty International deals with highly controversial subjects such as racial discrimination in the Mauritian political system, police brutality and death penalty which often cause the organization to be boycotted by the Mauritian media, especially in times of political elections.
Communication in a NGO such as Amnesty International is a constant fight and is often strenuous, but for me, it was totally worth it.
To be continued…:)
Céline
2 comments:
Working for Amnesty International certainly would be interesting. I'm glad to hear that you had to learn about human rights before being able to work there.
In many places it seems that you don't have to know much about what your communicating.
Working for a controversial organisation like Amnesty (I say controversial because some people still believe in things like capital punishment etc) do you find yourself being immersed in your work? do you believe that it would be ethical to work for an organisation like amnesty if you didn't believe and support what they were doing?
I guess this question would be easier to answer if your organisation had a bad reputation.
Cass
Hi Cassie, I hope you are fine and that you fully recovered from the car accident. I am glad you enjoyed your internship as much as I did. During mine, my passion for human rights turned into an ambition and I was fully absorbed by my work and I believed in everything I did, in every message I tried to get across and in every goals and objectives of Amnesty International.
I think that yes, as a Public Relations Practitioner, it would be to some extent unethical to work for an organization you don’t believe in because it would be deceitful and we are taught since the first year that ethical PR is about being true and factual… What are your opinions on the matter?
Take care
Cel
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