Mahomed-Abraar Khatri, 18 and Vargo, the first guide dog in the UK to enter a mosque, are welcomed into the Bilal Jamia mosque in Leicester by Head Imam Hafiz Rehman.
PA Photocall client The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association has won an award for their campaign on ‘Vargo, the first guide dog to enter a Mosque’ which aimed to tackle the misunderstanding of the work of guide dogs.
The organisation picked up the 2009 Excellence award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, beating seven other finalists in the category of Best Campaign £10k and under.
With the support of his local mosque, a visually impaired teenager from Leicester applied for a guide dog and his story was used to highlight the fact that guide dogs are working animals enhancing a person’s independence. To allow Mohamed to take his dog Vargo into the mosque for worship, a historic fatwa was issued, changing ancient Shari’ah law. ‘A strong, well planned and managed piece of co-operative work which achieved enormous press coverage and is now being used as an example around the world. Profound cultural change achieved for just over £1,000.
PA Photocall were commissioned by Guide Dogs for the photography for the campaign. As a result PA Photocall’s pictures were central to the success of the launch, with coverage including The Times, The Daily Star Online, MSN, AOL Online and This is Grimsby to name but a few. It is a good example to the fact that there is no glass ceiling for PR.
Post by Penny Joyner (Marketing Executive for PA Photocall)
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