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Help build a Safe House

Topic: Resume of a Project titled "Help build a Safe House"
Category: Corporative social responsibility
Applicant: Mmd Public Relations Ltd. and Fund B92
Client: B92
Project: Help build a Safe House

Within a campaign titled "For Our Children", in the autumn of 2006, B92 fund launched a great fund-raising drive for the building of a safe house for women and children who are the victims of family violence. The house sized 200 sq meters will be built on Belgrade territory and will be large enough to house 30 women and children.

Mmd Public Relations Agency has supported the project from the very beginning and contributed in recognizing family violence as a social problem to talk about and solve it.

Description of the Project (Motif for Launching and Plans)

Family violence is one of the burning problems in our society. Namely, one in six children and almost one in three women in Serbia are victims of family violence and physical abuse.

While the European average amounts to 12-15%, the number of women who are victims of family violence in Serbia is more than twice higher. Records of a research conducted by World Health Organization and Autonomous Women's Centre in 2003 show that 23% of women are subject to physical, and 6% to sexual abuse, while the number of those who are subject also to psychological abuse is much higher.

With the support of Mmd Agency, B92 fund recognized a necessity to get the public acquainted with this social problem. Also, the basic idea of the project has been to provide victims of family violence with indeed appropriate help. There are no records in the Belgrade City area that government bodies deal with such kind of an activity. Moreover, no shelter was built for the purpose of housing of family violence victims on Belgrade territory.

Belgrade shelters will be handed over to "Counseling against Family Violence", an NGO and non-profit organization which runs shelters for women and children who are victims of family violence on Belgrade territory, in which more than 3,000 people seeks protection.

After the first, another safe house of the similar size will be built on the same plot of land, and then this project will be expanded to other towns in Serbia, too. A tentative deal on a safe house building that will have regional character has been made with the Municipality of Zrenjanin, and with the strong support of Executive Council of Vojvodina. The building of this house should begin in September, 2007.

Project Objectives

With this project, via media, a broadcasting company B92 has wanted to advert the attention of the public to all aspects and consequences of family violence in Serbia, to help launching actual protection mechanisms as well as to initiate development and educational projects.

Also, PR activities have been directed towards even stronger defining of B92 as a company with big corporative responsibility and towards a corporative citizen devoted to the local community.

Communication of socially responsible behaviour - a way of implementation and results

The project has been underway for more than six months.

Communication of key project messages with an aim to alarm the public and incite companies to join the campaign in accordance with their programs of public responsibility takes place via several channels.

Apart from the maximum use of all B92 channels of communication combined with a focused marketing campaign, all information related to fund-raising and building have been published up to now in other media as well.

Mmd Agency has coordinated PR activities (inviting journalists to events, writing and distribution of announcements, helping with press conferences organization, controlling the campaign presence in individual media, etc.), collaborated closely with communication departments of companies which joined the project, done consultant services in times of crisis and given every kind of creative and practical support.

It should especially emphasize the complexity of the situation since information on the project of one broadcasting company has been broadcast in rival media.

Moreover, collaboration with companies that joined the project as well as with government institutions authorized to deal with the problem, has contributed the improvement of relations between company B92 and key stakeholders.

On one side, the campaign has up to now resulted in several hundreds of announcements in printed media, and some of them are placed in the set of supportive material. PR marketing announcement in printed media costs over $100,000. Also, several-hour presentation was given in electronic media.

On the other side, PR activities have contributed to a great number of foreign and domestic companies that joined the project, small and medium enterprises, as well as individuals.

A total amount of EUR 220,000 has been raised up to now.

Conclusion

Mmd Agency joined this project without any financial compensation, and with an aim to give its contribution to this socially significant action. Being engaged in this project, the agency helped a broadcasting company B92 to carry out the objectives set up in the beginning.

On one hand, family violence has now been defined as a social problem. The sensibility of business community for corporate responsibility has been awoken (this is the biggest and the most comprehensive campaign of this kind ever conducted in Serbia). Government institutions have a better understanding of the necessity of taking full responsibility, practical steps and dealing with this issue than they had it six months ago.

On the other hand, enough funds have been raised for the building of even two houses, thus individuals who are directly subject to family violence will get appropriate shelters.

And, in the end, in accordance with the traditional profile of company B92, its image of a socially engaged medium turned towards positive values has been expanded.