ACT II - SEMESTER II

I am back in Pune-Hostel-Lavale-SIMC Campus. Came on 19th November 2010. Train journey all by myself was quite an interesting one. And managed to reach the hostel. Must admit that the hostel was quite dead without my batch 2012 and many of our seniors (batch 2011) too. All is well by now. Its 22nd November 2010 and Semester 2 has kick started. Wish that its an eventful semester with more learning and more experience in my expertise and also an easy one =D

Cheers,
2years, 2months, 2 weeks, 2 days

ACT II - SRP EXPERIENCE

 Me with fellow interns from National Institute of Singapore ( L to R: Wensu, Odelia, Myself)

THE BANYAN - An organization with a vision to help the mentally ill women has deceived my perceptions about NGOs and the development communication sector in general. I went to the office in Chetpet and to my surprise the office’s outlook was very corporate. Getting introduced to my mentor Mr. David Nash has been the best things that happened to me during my internship. David is a person who is highly knowledgeable and imparted useful skills that are pre-requisite for a Public Relations practitioner.

First day at work, I learnt the NGO’s history, mission, vision, past projects done, present on-going projects, the various fund-raiser events conducted by the organization and all communication related work done in the NGO. Thereafter, I analyzed what was lacking in the communication strategies adopted by The Banyan and prepared a detailed analysis of what needs to be implemented with immediate effect for improving the plan of action in various projects of this NGO.

The remaining days of my work at The Banyan included:

1.      Creating a unified identity for the organization using all possible communication tools – brochures, letterheads, posters, in-house magazine, etc.

2.     Fund-raise for Diwali Celebrations and ideating for sponsorships. 

3.     Handled online communications for The Banyan using social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger. 

4.     Conducted fun activities like singing, dancing, etc. aimed at group motivation for the rescued mentally ill women on project site Kovalam. This was personally my favorite since it was heart-warming to see these psychologically affected women opening up and expressing themselves.

People who made my experience much more memorable were:

1.      David Nash – CEO of The Banyan who is one of my role models and a very friendly person who led us in the right direction during my internship.

2.     Niranjan R – My colleague from SIMC, Pune whose constant encouragement and work skills inspired me to give my best output.

3.     Tanya, Avinaash, Sarmishta – Representatives of the communication department that came into force at my later internship period. They always supported my ideas and involved me in their formal discussions.

4.     Odelia, Wensu, Giulia – Fellow interns at The Banyan who shared their knowledge in the fields of Psychology and Sociology.

Finally, at the end of my internship, the outlook towards NGO has changed completely and for better. And definitely look forward to work in this sector to bring about a change that we all seek for.