Whatshot
Designing for Development
Designing for Development
Even though she has lived in England for a number of years, recent graduate of Falmouth University, Meghan Bolt, has nursed a desire to come back to South Africa and spend time giving back to the country of her childhood. While on a youth camp in the UK, Meghan heard Titch Smith speaking on the impact LIV Village is making on the lives of the orphans who call the village "home". She knew that God was telling her that she needed to spend time in South Africa at some point to give back to the land of her birth for all it had built into her. Having heard her parents talk of their friendship with Mickey Wilkins, founder of The Domino Foundation, she knew, with this family connection, the Foundation was where she needed to volunteer. This was the impetus which led to Meghan's two months working in most of the seven programmes The Domino Foundation runs. Using her skill with a camera, having recently completed her degree in photography, the young volunteer did a series of photographs for the anti-human-trafficking Red Light Programme's online jewellery shop. Her obvious creativity became the buzz in the offices of the Foundation and it was then that Cathy Whittle approached her with a brief to create posters based on the WASH Programme of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
The WASH (Water, Sanitation And Hygiene) programme is founded on the evidence which indicates access to safe drinking-water, sanitation, and hygiene services has an critically positive impact on nutrition. It has been proven that good nutrition in the thousand days between pregnancy and a child's second birthday is vital for a resilient immune system, sound physical and intellectual development, and significantly increases a child's chances of survival.
Meghan, having been briefed by Cathy to produce graphic materials on basic nutrition suitable for the South African context, studied the printed materials put out by the WASH programme.
"With this brief, I was left to my own creativity, which was really fun and freeing!" enthused the young photographer.
Through her lens on her visits to the townships where The Domino Foundation's programmes operate, Meghan learnt a lot about the vast cultural differences between the more developed areas of South Africa in which she had grown up and the disadvantaged areas she now found herself in. This had a huge impact on the evolving creative process which caught her up as she developed the concepts for the posters. She had to educate herself about the perceptions and worldviews of the children and their teachers who would be using the materials.
"I was struck by the vital importance of the work the Feeding programme is doing. I was blown away by the number of sandwiches it provides every day for children all over Durban and by the huge difference it makes in the lives of the children. I also had begun to realise that they weren't just filling tummies for the day but also building healthy bodies and minds for the future."
Meghan began to see how, by developing a clear and simple overarching design approach, these posters could be invaluable in a number of The Domino Foundation's programmes, particularly the Feeding and Early Childhood Development programmes.
Trawling the Internet, she drew inspiration from cartoon images. "My skills don't lie in graphic design but in photography. I used my Photoshop skills to do simple graphic design. I adapted images so the children would be able to relate to them. Simplicity was the keybold and eye-catching, bold colours and geometric shapes to differentiate each step, to make learning from these posters as easy as possible."
Knowing that her posters will help educate young people about hygiene and sanitation, helping them avoid illnesses which threaten their physical and mental well-being, Meghan sees her two months giving her time and talent as having been immeasurably beneficial to herself. More than that, she hopes that her efforts will help make a lasting difference in the lives of the children benefitting from the ECD and Feeding programmes.