My organisation is a Non Governmental Organisation (or charity to you and me), which provides a whole range of services for people with disabilities. I am their PR and Communications Advisor, and am helping them with everything and anything to do with their communications, marketing, corporate image and a lot else too.
First, some context. Disability is still extremely widespread in the south of Sri Lanka (about 10% of the population has some kind of physical or mental disability). This is mainly because of how rural it is here. People are living in such remote areas and on such low incomes (most people with disability live on less than US$ 2 per day), and access to decent healthcare is sparse. Intermarriage and incest is very high here as people are very concerned to keep land and property (the only wealth thay have) in their families. this means that genetic disorders are very common.
Me with one of the (very sweet) special school children
People are also quite poorly educated here about health and disability issues. Often they don't know how to look after themselves once they are ill, and a small treatable infection will turn into something requiring amputation. There is also a stigma attached to disability as some people still believe that disabled people embody evil spirits (it's considered bad luck, for example, for someone with a disability to be present at a wedding or another important "auspicious" event), although this view is becoming a minority one now.
My organisation is the only organisation in the whole of Sri Lanka that tries to deal with this problem through a "holistic" approach. This means that they work with the whole person. Field officers and volunteers keep their ear to the gound in the small villages and communities to find disabled people. When identified, the NGO enables them to get treatment and therapy for the problem (e.g. physiotherapy, artificial limbs, speech therapy etc) either at the centre in Tangalla, or through outreach clinics in the field. The organisation also runs four special schools for disabled children, which prepare the children for inclusion in mainstream education (still quite a novel concept here).
Last week to celebrate national day, I went with the Tangalla special school to plant mango and pomegranate trees. They do this every year, and join up with an able bodied school (the kids in orange). this helps introduce the disabled kids to mainstream events and traditions in a safe and non-scary environment (That was until Olof and I turned up and started pointing cameras at them) Once the person with a disability has received any treatment they need, the field officers continue to work with them supporting them through counselling and also through helping them generate their own income. This may be through gardening, tailoring, craft making, or through setting up vocational training courses for them (e.g in IT or English).
These women are making crafts and cards as part of their income generating activities
There's lots more they do, which I won't get into now but as you can see, my NGO is a really impressive and forward thinking organisation. From my point of view this is great as there so much potential for creating some really good PR and communications opportunties for them.
At the tree planting day
As with many organisations (both here and at home) PR and communications is understandably neglected as the first priority is providing services (as it should be). But I know how important it is for the organisation to have professional creative communications that reflect the work they do. This is especially the case because the organisation get most of their funding from donors abroad.
I'm currently writing (and researching and designing) their 2007 annual report, editing and advising on their new website (watch this space) , and will be setting up training workshops to help staff here improve their report writing skills and to inspire them to communicate their good work better. I am also hoping that Olof will come and do a training session on photography, as their own images are really poor quality and bring down the impact of their messages a lot.
