Internship at Protsahan India Foundation – Juhi from BIMTECH
She (in centre) made broken look beautiful and helped these little angels to smile wider. She had the multiple choices for the place of internship, but she went along with her heart and made the right decision. They not only gave a platform to kids to showcase their hidden talent but also were in top 15 in Google Online Marketing Challenge in the Asia- Pacific region.
“Once said, “Smooth seas don’t make skilful sailors”, followed today. I opted for Protsahan for pursuing my Internship. An undaunted decision, indeed!
The decision-making
Internships are the intrinsic part and parcel of any B-School curriculum. Abiding by this, I had an arduous task of making a choice among three organizations, two of them being corporate giants in their own domain, Asahi Glass and Kajaria Ceramics and the other one being Protsahan India Foundation, NGO which came complimentary with the Google online marketing challenge in which we participated (I with four of my friends).
NGO who worked for and with children, who were once left deprived, who have gone through all the adversities and yet sustained all of them, children who have nothing to give except ‘smiles and hugs’, to get in this beautiful abode.
The decision was to bring its own repercussions as getting into the former companies was easier with no risk unlike the latter one. CCR, the placement department of BIMTECH suggested that getting associated with an NGO, in a profile of Digital Marketing, on an opportunity cost of a big corporate, offering profile in Marketing Communication and Product Development was a imprudent thing to do and when the companies coming to college offering Digital Marketing profile are as few as two or three, it could be synonymous to pushing oneself off a cliff. With all the courage and a thought to do something different I finalized Protsahan and decided to take on the responsibility of my own free will.
The ambiance
This summer, I along with my marketing professor and four of my friends who were sailing on the same boat traveled down from Greater Noida to this place which was to change our perspective forever. With the to-do list in our mind and propaganda to discuss with the Founder CEO herself, we set forth with our internship plans.
In the dark lanes of Uttam Nagar, Delhi, houses overlooking each other, surrounded by children who were too excited to find us there, passed through the lanes, by lanes and we stand before a gate which is aloud with the hustle and bustle of vibrant girls. A step further and you know that you have entered a different dimension of the locality.
We saw them and they left us surprised. A small premise, close over hundred children, some with the books reciting a poem, some gleefully playing together, some sitting in groups discussing everything trivial to issues as big as child marriage where they are working on film which they are scripting! I fell in love with my decision!
The working days
With little knowledge of Digital Marketing and its tools, it was challenging to gift Protsahan the best of my abilities but as it is rightly said “Your desire to change must be greater than your desire to stay the same.” It started off.
Twitter account of Protsahan was officially handed over to me. To-do list for Twitter itself was big, responsibilities being: tweeting consistently, engaging users so as to draw maximum traffic to Protsahan’s website, monitoring the performance of the Twitter account through Twitter Analytics. TweetDeck came as a rescue for easy organizing and for keeping a tab on the recent happenings all over the Twitter.
Informal meetings were held with the team (other four interns) and progress was monitored and strategies were changed as per the requirement. The team was in constant touch with the CEO of Protsahan and the Marketing professor.
We, the team, made regular visits to Protsahan and every time we went there it was as exciting and enriching as the first time. Adding to this there was one more reason which constantly added to the adventure, we never had to wander on the streets of Delhi NCR for selling or rather marketing a product as was required to be done by students who had profile of sales.
First and the major step towards hitting our objectives were to analyze Protsahan’s visibility in the digital world based on two parameters, Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). SMM was used to create awareness about the NGO, image ads, flash ads and video ads were posted on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn.
The community was formed on Google+, hosted live events on Google Hangouts, YouTube, discussions on topics like women hygiene, child abuse prevention, and others were held. Links of these Hangouts were shared on other platforms.
Instagram, WordPress, and PinInterest were the platforms which were used to cater to the untouched audience and thus increasing the reach. For every social platform different strategy was incorporated and the work was equally and mutually divided within the team. Incorporation of Google AdWords gave great results.
Greatest moments
It was the “Happy5th” of Protsahan. Celebration time. Protsahan was about to complete five years of its existence. We were given the sole responsibility to address the guests, to look for the location, to do branding of the souvenirs, to check the rehearsals of the children that it was going fine. And it provided us the opportunity to address the guests from UNICEF, we danced, laughed, and celebrated our togetherness. Indeed a proud moment for me!
Another great moment was when we were declared Adwords Business semi-finalist in the 2015 Google Online Marketing Challenge and we were among the top 15 teams in the Asia- Pacific region.
It was the only reason which introduced us to Protsahan, It emerged as a reason in helping us bringing laurels to Protsahan, and it became the reason which gave Protsahan, its children and us the recognition which we all deserved.
The last Days
We were busy in the compilation of our college report for the presentation perspective, and also in finishing the tits and bits of our remaining work for the successful completion of our Internship.
We went back to the same inspirational source from where the journey began, Protsahan, to collect our Internship certificates, to bid farewell to the most grounded CEO, Sonal Kapoor and to the most adorable kids in the world who yelled with joy on seeing me “Juhi didi aa gayi!” This was it.
This was the best farewell which anyone could have imagined, a smile, a hug and an inspiring cause which lead to a changed and yet a better me! Although the Internship has come to an end, the journey with Protsahan will continue. And finally it’s because of Protsahan that now I firmly believe in a quote that
“Things happen for a reason, just believe in them.”
If Juhi’s experience motivates you, you can check the latest internships in Delhi and latest Digital Marketing internships.
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