CAS Project: HelpAge

For the past 6 months, I have been working with HelpAge Sri Lanka. It is a charitable non-governmental organization that is working on behalf of the senior citizens in Sri Lanka. Their mission is to ensure that people in Sri Lanka understand how much senior citizens can give to society and enjoy their right to healthcare, services, and economic security. Since they are a non-governmental organization they rely on donations to keep the organization active. The donations received mainly go to cataract surgeries, medicine, walking frames, and other items that the elders need.

Addressing the Issue

HelpAge usually receives donations by contacting schools, these schools would then hold an event or assembly to encourage students and parents to donate. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic being around for the past year there weren’t many opportunities to host events for donations and due to this they weren’t able to get as many donations last year.

HelpAge has a website that has a link connected to donations where people can choose which items they are able to donate. So I decided to pursue a CAS project o make this website become more known and to make it easily accessible. Since I was pretty good with photoshop and design I decided to make a poster to encourage people to donate. After having a discussion with Executive Director Mr. Samantha Liyanawaduge, I learned that cataract surgeries are one of HelpAge’s main operations since they give them for free for the elders but they still need money to pay for the doctors, staff, and the facility. So the poster was going to be focused on that issue.

Process of making the Poster

I first had to decide how the poster should be formatted. I thought it would be best to include pictures to get the audience’s attention. The poster should also include the organization’s name to know where this message is coming from. Since I’m making this poster to convince people to donate using the donation link, I decided to add the donation link to the poster, and to make it easier to go there I would add a QR code to make it easier for people to go with their phones. The overall format of this poster was to be simple and eye-catching.

With pictures provided by HelpAge, I decided to choose one below.

When it came to finding which software to use I decided to use both Photoshop and Canva. I used photoshop to edit the picture that was given to blur the background so that it focuses on the elder.

Then I used Canva, I chose a template that had a similar idea to mine and decided to use that.

I then added the message, organization, link, QR code, and picture to the template. Which became the final product. This poster was placed on the March 12th Sunday Times and was also posted on the HelpAge Facebook page.

When it came to making the actual poster it didn’t take a lot of time, but when it came to the brainstorming and preparation of the pictures. My initial idea for this poster was to make it more like an infographic or a poster that was set on the overall mission of what HelpAge was doing. But after having a meeting with Mr. Samantha Liyanawaduge on how they needed more donations for the cataract surgery, I decided to narrow my idea to a more specific issue. This change helped in adding more purpose to the poster.

Overall this CAS project was to focus on the donations for the maintenance for the cataract surgeries and to help people in the future to locate the donation page by using the link or QR code in the poster.

Learning Outcomes

Learning outcome 1: Identify own strengths and weaknesses and develop areas for growth

• When making the poster I realized that the poster was too broad and not specific as seemed like a poster that only purpose was to inform people to donate through this link, but after my meeting with the Executive Director, I later changed it to focus on a specific issue which to make this poster mostly focused on convincing people to donate for the maintenance of the hospital and the cataract surgeries.

Learning outcome 3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

• Making the poster took a lot of preparation since I had to brainstorm multiple ideas on how the poster should look like and what its message should be. I also had to pre-plan the photos that I was most likely getting and how I would add them to the poster. I also had to change some ideas when I decided to focus the poster on a specific issue.

Learning outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance.

• HelpAge is an organization that helps people understand how much the elders have contributed to society and how they have the right to healthcare and economic security. This poster’s purpose is to ensure that people know where to make their donations. The donations will lead to cataract surgeries and other necessary equipment for the elderly.