Every third adult in rural areas and every fifth adult in urban areas uses tobacco in some form or the other, revealed the Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2 released by the ministry of health and family welfare. Tobacco use is a leading cause of premature, noncommunicable diseases associated with mortality and morbidity, and it also increases the risk of cancer. Since this is a growing public health challenge we decided to raise awareness about the noxious effects of consuming tobacco amongst factory workers, who have the maximum amount of tobacco consumption through a tobacco awareness campaign.
Here are the following learning outcomes met while conducting this CAS project.
LO 1- Identify own strengths and develop areas of growth.
It is important to identify ones and one’s team members strengths and weaknesses before beginning a project so that the division of responsibilities becomes easier. One of the main strength that I possessed was good communication skills and having this skill was integral for our project because without good communication skills we wouldn’t be successful in delivering the information regarding the harmful effects of tobacco on human health to the factory workers. This skill also helped us to communicate with the workers better, we could understand their queries and answer them better. I also had a bit knowledge about their regional language( Gujarati) which further helped me in better delivery of the information we wanted them to know and It also helped in creating a better understanding of the information( harmful effects of tobacco on human health) we passed on amongst the workers. Since I was more creative than my partner and I also had more experience in designing posters it was easier for me to make posters about tobacco intake and its negative impact. One new skill that I developed because of this CAS experience was to identify my team members strengths and divide work accordingly. For example, my teammate had better technical skill so she was given the responsibility of making the video which we were going to show the workers and I took the responsibility of making the poster as mentioned above.
LO 2- Demonstrate challenge have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
Challenges are a part of any CAS experience. One of the main challenges we faced was time management. Since we had many submissions for the month of August and September it was difficult for us to take out time to plan our project which actually leads to a delay in the implementation of the project. We also felt that due to time constraints the quality of work was deteriorating, therefore, we decided to utilize the free time in the school itself by working in our free slots and we also used to meet on a weekly basis so that we can monitor the progress of our work. When it was not possible for us to meet outside we used to come early to school to work. We used to make sure that we complete our submission beforehand so that we can devote sufficient time in planning the project this further helped me in developing time management skills. To a certain extent making sure that the workers understand the information which we were passing was also a challenge. Even though I knew the regional language a bit language barrier between us and the factory laborers was created because they come from a wide range of geographical area thus they have different native language and this made it difficult for us make sure they were understanding what we were saying. We tried our best to combat this problem by talking help of different people who would translate important information for them and also we printed the posters in different languages, for example, Hindi and Gujarati so that they can understand the content on the poster. As we went to different factories to create awareness there was a problem of resource management for example in one the factories there was no HDMI port to connect our laptop with the LCD even though we had informed them about our requirements two-three days prior to the event so we had to divide the big group of workers into smaller groups and then show them the video directly through the laptop’s screen. Through this experience, I learned to manage things on the basis of the resource availability and making changes in the presentation process as per the needs.
LO 3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
Before beginning the planning we divided the responsibilities among ourselves based on our skills so that we can focus on our individual task and conflict are avoided In Order. This further helped us to finish our task efficiently and on time to make the process of planning more organized we decided to make a weekly plan . This not only organized our work but also helped to assess the progress of our work. The plan consisted weekly goals like in the first week of planning we decided to finalize the content we were going to include in the poster and to make a rough outline of the same. Once the plan was made we began initiating it, however, keeping up with the plan was much more difficult due to the submissions but we made sure that we updated the plan as per work is done so that our plan is up to date and there are no confusions later on and we are more clear regarding the progress of our work.
LO 4- Show commitment and Perseverance
Staying committed right from the process of planning to the organizing of an event is very important in order to make it successful. Due to many coursework submission during the time of the event, it became difficult to devote time to this event. We also had to come early, do stay back or give up over our free slots to complete the pending work and meet out. this made us feel overburdened and we wanted to quit however we got motivated by looking at the long-term scenario of making the event a huge success and achieving our aim of creating awareness about harmful effects of tobacco consumption. There were times when my partner was not meeting her individual deadline which made me really frustrated but I maintained my calm and kept pushing her. We were only successful in achieving our aim because of the commitment and the perseverance displayed.
LO 5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
As there were 2 to 3 people involved in this project the work had to be divided. Working collaboratively was a huge advantage because the workload was divided and it allowed us to focus on our individual task which further increased the efficiency and quality of the task done by each of us. Seeing one’s teammates working with so much dedication motivated the other team members to the same. We also reminded each other of the deadlines which helped us to complete the project on time. One of the main benefits of working in a group was we balanced each other’s weakness and made effective use of each other’s strengths for example if I lacked technical skill my teammate took the charge of making the video. And if she lacked creative skills I took the charge of making the posters.
Lo 6-Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
more than 6 million tobacco-related deaths every year across the world, one-sixth occur in India alone. Experts see the total tobacco-related deaths rising to 8 million by 2030. Based on the statistics mentioned above we can identify the severity of this issue. These statistics are alarming and call for immediate action thus we decided to take up an ‘ awareness campaign’ as a part of our CAS project
LO 7- Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and action
Since we were making a video as well as a poster on a very sensitive issue it was important for us to keep certain things in mind like avoiding usage of content which can mentally affect the workers psychologically and we also needed to ensure that there is no manipulation of data from our end and that basis towards workers are avoided
