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Running Head: PUBLIC RELATIONS CRISIS

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PUBLIC RELATIONS CRISIS

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PUBLIC RELATIONS CRISIS

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Mama G’s Children’s home is a non-profit organization meant for taking care of the children who are homeless, those who are born and thrown by their parents, those who lose their parents, those children who happen to have been lost and do not recognize their parents but when the parents are looked for, they are nowhere to be found, such children are normally taken to Mama G’s home, an organization that has been established and registered under the federal law. The organization is named after its founder, an Africa woman known as Debora Ouma, who was the mother of Gerald. Gerald, on his way to school one day, found a crying baby on the road, and rushed home to inform his mother, upon hearing this, the mother rushed to look at the child, only to found a thrown a one-year child on the street of left by his parents. She took the child to the hospital first for medical check-up as the information on the organization’s website states, after which the doctors confirmed that the child was in good health conditions. Later, the child was taken to the nearest police station for reporting, the police then gave the mother permission to look after the child until the parents were found. After one year, it was realized that the child belonged to a single mother who threw her away, went and committed suicide, leaving the young one alone. Since then, Debora, commonly known as Mama G, developed the heart of helping children who happen to have no parents and came up with a children’s home, known as mama G’s children home.

Mama G’s children has grown to a large extent to become one of the largest in East Africa. It started with a pre-nursery and now it has up to secondary school where the children it hosts can learn. I happen to be one of the teachers of at the secondary school belonging to mama G’s children’s home as well as the public relations officer for the entire children’s home. In the past few years, this organization has received several humiliations from the public accusing it of conducting illegal businesses. The board of directors of the organization has tasked me to develop a public relations plan in which we shall persuade the public to believe that the allegations they hear about the organization are not true.

This organization has recently been receiving humiliations from the public accusing it of carrying out illegal businesses. The first humiliation was that; the organization was taking children who are not even orphans to the organization for the purpose of increasing the number of the children in the organization so that it receives more funds from the well-wishers, the government and the U.S government which has been the highest supporter of this organization, the local members who normally take every kind of supportive items to the organization, WHO which has also been supporting the organization for provision of healthcare services. All of the sources were almost withdrawing due to allegations published in the local dailies indicating that the organization was now admitting local area children who have parents so that they increase the number of children to solicit more funds from the donors. (Vanadia, 2020)

Another allegation by the local media was that the organization was sometimes involved in child trafficking where the children from the organization started going missing and their whereabouts was something never to be questioned by the organization. As one of the staff members of mama G’s children home, I would stand firm to term all the allegations false allegations which are founded on political grounds as one of the politicians wanted the organization to collapse because the current area member of parliament was using the organization as a campaigning strategy by helping it to earn sympathy votes from the locals.

Mama G’s children home was also accused by the local media houses as using the children as a means of earning money and not helping the children to achieve their goals in life. The organization was accused of letting the children in the organization to repeat some classes by force so that the organization would maintain the large number of the children it had to attract more funds from the supporters.

The goals that I wish to achieve as the public relations officer of this organization in the to the crisis facing the organization are: reputation management, relationship management and task management.

Reputation management. Anani-Bossman, (2020) defines reputation management as the means of ensuring the organization maintains the good name to the current and new customers. My first goal for this organization would reputation management. I would like to ensure that the name of the organization is not tarnished by the media. I would inform the public about the organization once more, the services that we offer and ensure that they have faith with the organization because they are the main stakeholders of the organization in terms of support. I would also build the reputation of the organization to the international community to earn their faith in the organization so that they continue supporting us to help the children.

Relationship management is the second goal to be achieved. I wish to ensure that the relationship between the organization and the public changes into a positive one so that we can continue receiving and helping the children to achieve their ambitions in life.

Task management. Our main task in this organization is to offer support to the orphan children so that they can gain access to education and training to better their future. Through the task management goal, I would ensure that the education we give to the children is the best to help them in life.

Steps to be taken to achieve the goals would be:

First, publishing in the media houses about the false information that was aired out to the public so that the members of the public can read and understand that all the information that was published earlier was false information.

Organizing for charities by the children’s home to give back to the society, like going for cleaning in the nearest town where we shall have the opportunity to address the public and inform them that all the information they have been hearing was false and they should not follow.

Another step would be inviting the Local leaders in the organization so that they may come to a consensus and agree to help the organization instead of using the name of the organization to look for votes from the public.

Evaluation plan.

Measuring key results areas

Surveys

Media monitoring

Measuring key results areas.

As one of the most effective way of evaluating the campaign, I would measure the key results areas that are funding from the locals and the international community.

I would measure the funding received from the local community in the present situation and compare with the past to ascertain if the crisis has affected the way we receive funds.

Surveys.

I would carry out a survey to the local communities to find out their views about the organization and ascertain if they have changed their thinking about what the media had published concerning our organization. I would also carry out online surveys to reach out the international community that offers support to the organization to find out if my campaign strategies worked in persuading them to remain positive about the organization.

Media monitoring.

I would also monitor what the media says about the organization. For instance, I would read on the daily local newspapers to see what they have published about the organization and also follow the social media to see what the locals and the international communities say on the social media about the organization. Media monitoring is one of the best methods of following up the campaign strategies used by an organization in maintaining its reputation to the public. (Al-Jenaibi, 2019)

References.

Vanadia, G. (2020). Tweeting During a Crisis: Best Practices for Public Relations (PR) Professionals for Reputation Management during Racial Bias Cases.

Anani-Bossman, A. A. (2020). Role of Public Relations in Corporate Reputation Management: A Study of PR Practitioners in Selected Multinational Organisations in Ghana. Corporate Reputation Review, 1-12.

Singhal, M. P. (2020). A Study on prevalence of online PR techniques with reference to reputation Management.

Al-Jenaibi, B. (2019). Reputation Management Techniques and E-Collaboration: UAE Public Relations Communication Strategies During Crises Management. In Handbook of Research on Technology Integration in the Global World (pp. 64-86). IGI Global.