DPI, INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC RELATIONS ASSOCIATION TO HONOUR PUBLICITY CAMPAIGNS FROM SLOVENIA, IRELAND, KENYA, REPUBLIC OF KOREA

The Slovenian International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance, with SPEM Communication Group, will be presented with the 2000 United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) Grand Award for outstanding achievement in public relations, at a dinner at the Art Institute of Chicago on Sunday, 22 October. The awards presentation will take place as part of the Public Relations World Congress 2000.

Given in conjunction with the International Public Relations Association Golden World Awards, sponsored by Dai Nippon Printing, Inc., of Japan, the United Nations DPI awards were established by the Department in 1990, in order to recognize public relations campaigns that address priority issues of the United Nations.

The Slovenian International Trust Fund for Demining and Mine Victims Assistance (ITF) was established by the Government of Slovenia in 1998 to raise funds to organize and finance demining activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where several million unexploded landmines continued to threaten the population, as well as to rehabilitate Bosnian mine victims. The United States agreed to donate matching funds for all contributions received by the ITF over a two-year period. As a rapidly established relief organization whose mission and mandate were not well known, the ITF needed to strengthen public support within Slovenia while addressing donor fatigue in the international community, which had tired of providing assistance to the Balkans. The SPEM Communication Group worked with the ITF on a campaign, "To Heal the Wounds of Earth and Soul", to raise public awareness of the Bosnian landmine crisis, to establish long-term working conditions for the ITF within Slovenia and to maintain international interest and support.

In addition to the Grand Award, three campaigns were selected for honourable mention. One is the National Steering Committee (NSC) on Violence Against Women, which was established by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Ireland, to implement the findings of the Task Force Report on Violence Against Women. Edelman Public Relations worked with the NSC on a "Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women" to generate debate in the media on the subject and to ensure that the campaign messages reached all strata of society, urban and rural; to underscore societal condemnation and abhorrence of violence against women and to make clear that violence against women in any form

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-- emotional, physical or sexual -- was a crime; and to inform women affected by violence that help was available.

In 1998 the Kenya Medical Association (KMA) approached the pharmaceutical company Rh�ne Poulence (now Aventis Pasteur, following a merger with Hoechst) to request a grant for a public education programme on typhoid under the KMA community service programme. Typhoid remains a serious disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 16 million cases per year throughout the world, causing 600,000 deaths. In Kenya, where treatment can be prohibitively expensive and typhoid kills one out of every three people infected, it is a significant public health problem, and educating the public about preventive measures and practices is crucial. The pharmaceutical firm in turn consulted Apex Communications Ltd., which assisted in developing a multimedia "Typhoid Awareness and Prevention Campaign" with three objectives: to increase public knowledge of risk factors and motivate people to protect themselves against typhoid; to build community alliances to support the campaign goals; and to increase knowledge and support among health workers.

When Schering Korea conducted research to find out why oral contraception was underused in the Republic of Korea, they found that underuse was due primarily to lack of information, misconceptions about the safety of oral contraceptives and taboos against discussing sex and birth control. Research also showed an extremely high incidence of abortion in the Republic of Korea with more than 66 per cent of all pregnancies terminated by abortion. Merit/Burson-Marsteller worked with Schering Korea on "Create the Debate", a campaign to draw public attention to the Republic of Korea's high rate of unwanted pregnancies and abortion, dispel the attitude that contraception was an inappropriate topic for discussion by single women, educate women on reproductive health and the need for contraception in general, and highlight the specific benefits of oral contraception.

For further information, please call (212) 963-6923 or (212) 963-7346.

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