Students’ up-lift Local farmers
Public Relation's to
bring change in urban farming and food security
Earlier this year the second year of Public Relations were assigned to
develop a Public Relations Plan for the local farms which leave at Soweto. The
of aim of this project was to apply competence skills which we developed since
from first year. We were given a role to assist the farmers by trying to
attract more customers for them, media publicity, and awareness around the
community where the farm is located at. However our farm was not a commercial farm but a
community farm/garden to which is used to boost community members which are
unemployed.
Some of the
Challenges which our farmer faced.
- Lack of Human resources
- Inadequate working tools and
materiel
- Lack of Publicity around the
community
- Lack of communication
between leadership/committee members of the farm.
What did we do?
- We attracted young people
and had a workshop with them, telling them about the importance of food security and how farming can used
to alleviate poverty within our communities. Furthermore we asked young
people within that community to volunteer their time in helping in the
farm/garden whenever they had time because the person who was working there
was an old person.
- We also made a few calls to some
of the local committee members to address the issue of working tools and
materiel that must be used for particular garden.
- Lack of Publicity, this
where most of our Public Relations techniques had to come into place for
the farm and community.
- This was a huge crisis for
the farm because some of the farmers were not present during our time we
visited the farm not even a single time.
What Did I learn?
To organize my group: Some of the group members would come
and say they don't have money to go to Soweto, and sometimes I had to sacrifice
my last money and give transportation fee for that group member who couldn't
afford
To conduct small events: To plan and organize an event of 15-30
people, during the day of the work shop.
To be a team player: Not every group member would their work
so i had to teach myself to be ready at all times, and give myself extra work
for just in case the other group member didn't do their part there was
plan B.
