PR work is NEVER done

Hi everyone,

Just as I was about to complete a two-month internship at Amnesty International Mauritius Section, a major project came by and I volunteered to extend my PR placement to be able to be part of this amazing team of passionate staff, members, and supporters of AIMS. So here I am, both intern and volunteer, taking Human Rights courses once a week and working on the major campaign against Racial Discrimination, known as “communalism” in Mauritius.
One main feature of Mauritius's "rainbow society" is its ethnic, cultural, religious, and social heterogeneity. Any multicultural society is potentially fragile regarding discrimination and the Republic of Mauritius is no exception. This is why Amnesty International Mauritius Section has decided to develop a strong campaign against discrimination because the NGO considers the right to be free from discrimination to be vital, and also a critical lynch-pin to the enjoyment of other basic rights. As long as discrimination flourishes, other violations are bound to continue.

Through a one-year sensitization campaign consisting of more than 30 concerts around towns and villages of the island and the launching of a musical CD named “Par Mwa, rasis pas pu pase” (Racism will not thrive through me), Amnesty International aims at creating awareness on issues relating to discrimination on the basis of colour, culture and religion.
One of my tasks was to prepare a media release which generated articles in l’Express, 5-plus and Week-end, 3 most popular newspapers in the island. I was given the opportunity to meet with the local prominent artists who contributed to the production of the CD and interview them in order to include quotes and find interesting angles for journalists depending on their newspapers.

Moreover, I helped in the organization of the launching concert of our campaign on the international day against racial discrimination.
The one thing I always hated about PR is event management. Although it is exciting, I never felt capable of handling the organization of a concert, or another major event. However, I was part of an effective team and we dealt with each aspect of event management one by one. We selected a venue in the capital city, discussed about every technical aspect such as audio-visual, lighting, sound system, tables and chairs, podium, tent etc, agreed on the catering, and other things that I felt more comfortable with such as posters, signs, banners, stickers, press releases, t-shirts and other promotional tools. After the long but productive meeting, everyone was assigned tasks and all that was left to do was phone every agent we knew.

The concert was luckily a big success and about 500 petitions were signed against racial discrimination on that day.
The Racial Discrimination campaign took a new turn when the general elections campaigns began in Mauritius. Due to all the discriminatory and racial comments between parties, AIMS established a “Communalism Watch”, a blog space dedicated to publishing communiqués and quick alerts on the dangerous use of communalism in politics in Mauritius in the context of the general elections of the 5th of May. You can have a look at:

http://againstcommunalism.wordpress.com/about-2/

All communiqués were sent to the press as well. My task was to assist Lindley Couronne and Kavi Pyneeandy (the director and chairman) in writing those releases, to be aware of the current affair news and report to them any discriminatory comment by leaders of political parties heard on radio or viewed on TV.
The campaign against racial discrimination is still going strong. The next 3 concerts will be held in secondary schools, where Amnesty Clubs exist.
Our key public for this campaign involves youngsters since they are the future leaders of tomorrow and they are the ones who need the most to understand the message Amnesty International is trying to get across: We are all equal, in dignity and rights.

Céline