Prestigious CIPR Award for Guide Dogs

Guide Dogs has won a prestigious Chartered Institute of Public Relations Excellence (CIPR) Award for ‘Best campaign £10k and under’, recognising its inspirational PR campaign for the first guide dog to enter a mosque.

The CIPR Excellence Awards recognise and reward best practice in public relations throughout the UK and were presented on Tuesday 7 July 2009 at the Honourable Artillery Company in London. The Excellence Awards recognise and reward best practice in public relations throughout the UK and this year received over 900 entries for 26 categories.

Before Guide Dogs’ ground breaking campaign, a guide dog wasn’t allowed to accompany its owner into a mosque as the Islamic faith recognises dogs as being for guarding and hunting only. Following months of work with religious and community leaders, a fatwa was issued, recognising guide dogs as working dogs, providing independent mobility to their owners. Guide dog Vargo, owned by 18-year-old Mahomed-Abraar Khatri, made the historic trip to a mosque in Leicester in September 2008, paving the way for other blind and partially sighted Muslims to benefit from guide dog ownership in the future.

The award was presented to Guide Dogs’ PR Officer Vicky Bell who led the campaign, and the charity’s Central Midlands District Team Manager Graham Kensett, whose team trained Mahomed and Vargo.

Guide Dogs faced stiff competition for the award, and other finalists included British Airways and high-profile PR agencies. The judges said that the campaign was “a strong, well planned and managed piece of co-operative work achieved enormous press coverage and is now being used as an example around the world. Profound cultural change achieved for just over £1,000.”