.
|
Key
Words for the Getting Prepared Module
|
..
.
..
| Potentially,
the most dangerous emotion in our work is anger –– how we deal
with it. As human beings, we have emotions, and anger is only one of the
emotions. It is OK to be angry; that is part of being human. We should
not feel guilty or become embarrassed when we feel the emotion of anger.
Anger itself is a normal human emotion. We need to accept it when we become
angry. |
... |
How
we act when we are angry, however, can affect our work, whether we are
mobilizing communities, co-ordinating volunteers or managing staff. When
a client, volunteer, staff or community member makes a mistake, especially
one that affects our objectives, for example, we are tempted to show our
anger, when that is precisely the time we should be calm and cool. |
..
| When
we see someone make a mistake that affects our desired output, we need
to recognize that seeing it makes us angry and that it is our responsibility
to deal with that anger. The best immediate action to take is to go for
a walk. If there is not enough time, then we should at least go into another
room without displaying our anger, and let it die down there, outside the
view of those who angered us. |
. |
Then,
when we have our anger under control, we can more effectively deal with
the thing or event that sparked our anger. If it was a mistake by a client,
volunteer, staff or community member, we can take action as described in
the key word, Mistake. That action can
only be effective if we undertake to do it while being cool, calm and collected. |
.
..
..
| Sometimes
called social animation, From the Greek word anima (life, soul, fire, auto-movement).
To stimulate or mobilize a community so that it moves itself, so that it
lives, so that it develops. |
. |
Sometimes
used as a substitute for mobilization. Animation means uniting and mobilizing
the community to do what it (as a unity) wants to do. |
..
| Community
Empowerment Methodology takes social animation a step further, using management
training methods to further increase the capacity of the community, or
its community based organizations, to decide, plan and manage its own development.
It trains community members and leaders in management techniques needed
to ensure the community takes control of its own development. |
..... |
It
also encourages and trains government officials, local authorities and
community leaders to abandon the patronistic role of providing facilities
and services. They learn to facilitate communities to identify resources
and undertake actions to provide and maintain human settlement facilities
and services. |
.
..
..
.
|
(Deutch:
animator,
English:
animator,
mobilizer,
activist,
Español:
activista,
Filipino/Tagalog: Pagbibigay-Buhay,
Français: mobilisateur,
animateur,
Italiano:
animatore,
Kiswahili:
ramsisha.
Português:
animador,
Romãnã: animator)
|
..
..
..
| It
is sometimes related to a fatalistic philosophy. Yet, "Pray
to God, but also row to shore," a Russian proverb,
demonstrates that we are in God's hands, but we also have a responsibility
to help ourselves. |
.. |
We
were created with many abilities: to choose, to cooperate, to organize
in improving the quality of our lives; we should not let our ideas of God
or Allah be used as an excuse to do nothing. |
.
.
..
| One
of the five major factors of poverty is
ignorance.
To
many, the word ignorant is an insult. What we mean is simply that
some people do not know some things; there is no shame in that. |
. |
Also
know that ignorance and stupidity are very different things. Adults can
learn, but do not treat them as children or as inferior, or you will block
their learning. |
..
|
Ignorance means
not knowing something, stupidity means not being able to know something,
and foolishness means doing or not doing something when one knows better.
Ignorance, stupidity and foolishness are very different things.
|
.
. ..
.....
.....
..
|
(Deutsch:Macht,
empowerment,
die
stärkung, leistungsfähigkeit,
English:
capacity,
power,
strength,
Español:
capacidad,
potenciación,
Filipino/Tagalog: kakayahan,
pagpapalakas,
Français:
capacité,
empowerment,
Italiano:
empowerment,
Kiswahili:
uwezo,
Português:
capacidade,
fortalecendo,
Romãnã: capacitate,
Pyccкий:
paзвития,
Somali: awooda).
|
......
...
...
| The
difference between capacity development and capacity building lies with
the conception of where the force of growth originates. |
.
|
The
term "capacity building" implies that some agency outside the community
or organisation supplies the energy to increase its capacity. |
....
| It
is informed by the concept of "social
engineering." |
.
|
The
term "capacity development," in contrast, implies that the energy for growth
is internal to the community or organisation. |
....
.
|
(Deutsch:
leistungsaufbau;
leistungsentwicklung,
English:
capacity
development, Español:
desarrollo
de la capacidad, Filipino/Tagalog; paglilinang
ng kakayahan, Français: renforcement
des capacités, développement
des capacités, bâtiment
de capacité, développement
de capacité, fortifier
de la communauté, हिन्दी (Hindi): षमता विकास,
अधिकारिकरण,
Kiswahili:
kujengea
uwezo,
Português: desenvolvimento
de capacidade, Romãnã: dezvoltarea
capacitatii, Somali: awoodsiinta).
|
..
...
| A
celebration is a happy recognition of an event, usually one which changes
the status of a person or thing. A celebration is a public party. |
. |
For
a mobilizer, celebration of completion of a community project is an important
element of community empowerment, where the community is publicly recognized
for successfully engaging in self-help. |
.
....
.
...
| The
helping of poor or needy people is a universal value, and found in all
the major world religions. But there is giving and giving. |
.
|
If
your gift makes the receiver dependent
upon you, then you are not helping to strengthen the receiver, or helping
him or her become more self reliant. |
....
| When
you give some coins to a beggar on the street, then you are training that
person to be more of a beggar. |
. |
If
your assistance is well thought out, and helps to strengthen the receiver
(see the story of Mohammed and the rope in Stories),
then
it is a much more useful gift. |
.
.
..
| The
word "community" has been used in several different contexts. |
. |
Biologists
talk of community as meaning several individuals in a single species, or
several different species, living, competing, co-operating, to make a larger
whole. |
..
| Since
the advent of the internet and information technology, various collections
of persons, often those sharing a single interest, have grown up, without
geographical boundaries, and who communicate electronically. |
. |
The
focus on this web site in this training series, is on a more orthodox meaning
of community, a community of living human beings, one which usually has
geographic boundaries (except those may be stretched, as in nomadic communities),
associated, for example in communities that range from local neighbourhoods
in large urban areas, to remote rural villages. See
Habitat. |
..
| A
community is not just a collection of individual human beings. It is a
super organism that belongs to and is part of culture,
composed of interactions between people, everything that is learned. Its
six dimensions include: technology, economy, political power, social patterns,
shared values, beliefs and ideas. It is not transmitted by biological means,
but by learning. |
. |
Like
a tree or other life form that transcends the very atoms which compose
it, its human members can come of go, through death, birth or migration,
and it still continues to live and grow. It is never homogeneous, having
many factions, schisms, competition and conflicts within it. A community
is a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. See "What
is Community." |
...
.
. .
..
| For
a project or organization to be community based, it must originate in a
community, must have community members responsible, and have its decisions
(policy and executive) made by community members. |
. |
An
outside agency or project that is merely located in a community can not
rightly claim to be community based. Also, consulting with community leaders
does not make it community based. |
..
| There
is a big difference between community-based and community-located If an
agency sets up a service in a community (eg a clinic, an IG programme),
then that is community-located. |
. |
To
be called community-based correctly, an activity, construction, service,
or organization, must be chosen, selected and controlled by the community
as a whole (not just some factions). The important thing is for decision
making to be community-based, the decisions must be made inside
and by the community. |
..
.
.
| Community
Based Organization: |
...
| A
CBO is an organization that has been formed and developed within a community,
where the decision making (management and planning) is from the community
as a whole. |
. |
An
agency that is formed from outside, and has decisions made for it from
outside, may be community located, but is not community based. See the
Acronym, CBO. |
...
.
| Community
Based Rehabilitation: |
...
| Rehabilitation
in this context means physical (biological), emotional or mental rehabilitation
(or habilitation) of persons who are disabled by some physical, emotional
or mental incapacity. |
. |
Where
rehabilitation is community based, then the decision making and responsibility
for the habilitation of those disabled individuals are in the community,
and do not originate outside the community. |
,
.
...
...
| When
we point out that community participation is not the same thing as community
contribution (though many mistakenly assume it is), we also
note that both are necessary. |
. |
While
community participation means the decision making that makes any activity
community based or community centred, community contribution is necessary
to ensure that the community members feel that they own the project, ie
that they have invested in it, not just received it. |
.
| We
recommend that at least fifty percent of the inputs of any community project
that we support must come from the community itself. At first this is often
viewed with anxiety and despair from many community members. Then we point
out that the donated communal labour alone has to be fairly calculated,
and that if they did so, they would be pleasantly surprised at how much
value that would add to the community input. |
. |
We
point out that the time spent by community members, especially those that
sit on the executive committee, deciding and planning the project, are
donations of executive and management skills, time and labour. The donated
labour should be fairly costed. Furthermore, we point out that the value
of donations of sand and dirt, too, are often underestimated, and should
be recognized, with fair cost estimates, as community inputs. |
.
.
..
| When
a community develops, it grows. See the word, Development.
It does not necessarily mean getting bigger or getting richer. It means
getting more complex and stronger. |
. |
A
community does not get developed by a mobilizer and more than a flower
grows taller by someone pulling it up. A community (as a social institution)
develops itself. A mobilizer can only stimulate, encourage and guide members
of the community. |
..
| Some
people assume that community development simply means getting richer ––
an increase in per capita wealth or income. It can be, but is more. |
. |
It
is social change, where a community becomes more complex, adding institutions,
increasing its collective power, changing qualitatively in its organization. |
.
|
Development
means growing in complexity in all six dimensions of culture. It
differs from community empowerment which means growing stronger. Although
the two are different by definition, they are intricately linked to each
9ther.
|
.
...
...
|
To increase
capacity of a community is to increase its ability to do things for itself.
|
.
|
It is more
than just adding some communal services or facilities like roads, sanitation,
water, access to education and health care.
|
.
| It
means increased ability and strength. It means more skills, more confidence,
and more effective organization. It can not come about by charity or donation
of resources from outside. It can be facilitated through action such as
community projects, but only when all community members become involved
from the beginning, to decide upon a community action, to identify hidden
resources from within the community, and by developing a sense of ownership
and responsibility of communal facilities from the start to the finish. |
. |
While
increased democratization may be helped by Government devolving some law
making power to the community, its capacity to make use of its legal decision
making depends upon it having practical capacity, ie the ability to make
decisions about its own development, to determine its own future. Power,
strength, capacity, ability, empowerment. |
.
|
Community development
means growing in complexity in all six dimensions of culture. It
differs from community empowerment which means growing stronger. Although
the two are different by definition, they are intricately linked to each
9ther.
|
.
..
| Community
Management Training: |
...
| Community
management
training is aimed at poverty reduction, the strengthening of low income
communities in the planning and management of human settlements communal
facilities and services, their construction, operation and maintenance.
This is training for action, not just for skill transfer or for giving
information to individuals. |
. |
Training,
as a method for strengthening low income communities, for poverty reduction,
for promoting community participation, for practical support to democratization
and decentralization, is far from being only the transfer of information
and skills to the trainees. It also includes mobilizing
and organizing. This is non orthodox
training. |
.
|
Formalization
and institutionalization of this kind of training brings with it the danger
of emasculating the training, of emphasizing the skill transfer over the
encouragement, mobilization and organizing aspects of the training.
|
...
| Management
training in this sense was developed for strengthening the effectiveness
of top and middle management in profit making corporations. |
. |
It
has been modified here, and integrated with techniques of trade union organizing,
for the purposes of mobilizing and strengthening the capacity of low income
communities to come together, help themselves, for developmental social
change. |
.
.
..
| Community
participation is far more than the contribution of labour or supplies;
it is participating in decision making, to chose a community project, plan
it, implement it, manage it, monitor it, control it. It differs from community
contribution. |
. |
Social
Animation promotes the activities of a target community, with a view
to the community taking more responsibility for its own development, starting
with decisions about what projects to undertake, and stimulation to mobilize
resources and organize activities. |
.
|
Community participation
promotion aims at ensuring that decisions affecting the community are taken
by all (not only a few) community members (not by an outside agency).
|
.
| In
this methodology, community contribution is encouraged, for it helps the
community to become more responsible for the activity if they invest their
own resources in it. We also encourage Government, and outside donors to
discuss their activities with the whole community; this is community consultation. |
. |
Community
participation here should not be used as the equivalent of community contribution
or community consultation (as is misleadingly done by many assistance
agencies); participation here means participation in decision making,
in control and in co-ordination. |
.
..
...
| When
an aid agency or donor organization consults with community leaders or
representatives, they often ask if the community wants a project. That
answer is likely to be, "Yes." The agency may then
report to its board or donors that there was community participation. That
is incorrect. |
. |
What
has taken place is a consultation, not genuine community participation
in decision making, choosing and planning a project from among the community
priorities (in contrast to the agency's priorities). |
.
...
...
| Some
people will confuse participation with contribution. Many people, when
they hear the phrase, community participation. assume it
only means community contribution. They think only of the communal
labour that members will put into the project. |
. |
Unfortunately,
there have been many cases in the past where community members were treated
as serfs or slaves and forced to contribute their labour (or other resources,
eg land, food). The methodology promoted in this handbook is quite the
opposite. Participation here means participation in decision making, not
merely the contribution of resources. See community
contribution. |
.
...
...
| One
of the most important bits of wisdom to learn is that when we see something
wrong, to criticize it usually does not make it right, or correct the problem.
Instead, it usually makes the problem worse. |
. |
Why?
Because human beings feel threatened and under attack when someone is criticizing
them. Criticism lowers our/their self confidence and self esteem. We become
defensive when criticized, and instead of correcting the mistake, we tend
to defend it. |
...
| When
we are mobilizing communities, co-ordinating volunteers, or managing staff,
we must learn to expect that they will make mistakes and be prepared to
deal with those mistakes in ways that further our aims. |
. |
Showing
our anger, criticizing the person who makes the mistake, may serve a purpose
of "venting," but we pay a huge price for that personal relief. Refer to
the key words: Mistakes, Anger,
and Sandwich, and search for ways to correct
the mistake without negative criticism. |
...
..
.
..
| More
than merely songs and dances, culture, in social science, means the overall
social system, the total of all learned attitudes and behaviour, consisting
of socio-cultural systems belonging to six dimensions: technological,
economic,
political,
interactive,
ideological
and world view. |
. |
The
basic unit of culture is the "symbol." Culture is not genetic; it is transmitted
by communicating symbols. Sometimes called the "superorganic,"
because it is composed of systems that transcend the biological entities,
humans, that compose and bear culture. |
...
...
.
..
| The
dependency syndrome is an attitude and belief that a group can not solve
its own problems without outside help. |
. |
It
is a weakness that is made worse by charity. See: The
Dependency Syndrome. |
.
..
..
| Many
people assume that development means quantitative growth, whereas its main
characteristic is qualitative change. |
.
|
To
develop is to grow, and to grow means more than to get bigger; it also
means to become more complex and stronger. |
....
| When
a community develops, it gets stronger
and more complex. |
.
|
It
undergoes social change. |
....
| See
"Culture." An economist may see development
as only an increase in wealth or income (absolute or per capita); and an
engineer may see development as a greater control over energy, or more
sophisticated and powerful tools. |
. |
To
a mobilizer, however, those are only two of the six cultural dimensions
of a community that change. Development means
social change in all six cultural dimensions: technological, economic,
political, interactive, ideological and world view. |
.
.
.
...
...
...
|
A community
is a cultural entity, so the dimensions also apply to communities.
See:
Dimensions.
|
.
...
...
|
Illness is
one of the five major factors of poverty.
|
.
| It
is cheaper, more humane, and more productive for a society or community
to prevent than to cure disease and to direct limited resources towards
the treatment of a few common diseases affecting the majority of the population,
rather than towards sophisticated equipment and skills for the treatment
of a few wealthy people (thus the reasons for WHO promoting and supporting
the principles of primary health care). |
. |
Knowing
this, you the mobilizer may challenge a community's first and lightly considered
choice of a clinic, and perhaps let them see the logic and reasoning for
first choosing effective water and sanitation systems to prevent water
borne diseases. |
.
.
...
| Lack
of integrity and lack of honesty. |
.
|
Dishonesty
is one of the five major factors of poverty.
|
....
| Comes
with various labels, including corruption, embezzlement, extortion and
theft. It happens when wealth intended for development of the whole society
is illegally, and usually secretly, diverted to benefit individuals who
betray their positions of trust as servants of society as a whole. |
. |
The
resulting lack of trust contributes in turn to apathy and poverty.
That is why you, as mobilizer and organizer of community organizations,
promote transparency, integrity and honesty in the groups you organize. |
.
|
(Deutsch:
korruption,
unehrlichkeit,
English: corruption,
dishonesty,
Español:
falta de
honradez, Filipino/Tagalog: di-matapat,
Français: malhonnêteté,
Kiswahili:
rushwa,
Português:
desonestidade,
Romãnã: necinste,
Somali:
daacaddarro)
|
.
...
| Of
all the ways of learning (reading, listening, watching), the most effective
is by "doing." See Training Methods. |
. |
Learning
by doing can include doing directly such as doing a task in the field under
supervision by a trainer, or doing indirectly such as participating in
a role playing session or simulation game. |
...
..
.
| The
word "gender" is used to distinguish between two categories, "masculine"
and "feminine." |
.
|
It
should not be confused with the word "sex"
which is used to distinguish between "male" and "female." |
....
| Gender,
and its interpretations of what constitutes masculine and feminine differ
greatly between culture and culture, between community and community. |
.
|
Our
concern with gender mainly is focused on how distinctions of gender affect
the distribution of power, economic relations, and social distinctions. |
....
| These
are important variables which affect communities, and affect the nature
of the work of every mobilizer. |
. |
A
mobilizer must (as part of the requirement of learning about a community)
understand what values, attitudes and conceptualizations are shared among
community members. |
...
|
A mobilizer
must also work towards reducing unfair political and economic differences
between the genders, as an important element of community empowerment.
See the training module on Gender.
Also see: Age,
Race and Sex.
|
.
.
...
.
| Stimulation.
Not exactly the same as organize,
because
action has to take place (people become mobile, moving) before it can be
called mobilization. |
. |
It
can be spelled "mobilise." Similar to social
animation, except animation includes both the mobilizing and
the organizing. See "Action." |
...
.
.
| A
mobilizer is a person who mobilizes, ie gets things moving. Social animator.
Community development officer or assistant. |
. |
Community
worker. Activist. Community participation promoter. See: To
Be a Mobilizer. |
...
|
(Deutsch:
mobilisieren,
activist,
English:
mobilizer,
activist,
animator,
Español:
activista,
Filipino/Tagalog:
pakilusin,
Italiano: attivista,
Kiswahili:
ramsisha.
Français:
mobilisateur,
Português:
ativista,
Romãnã:
mobilizator)
|
|
|
.
...
| Money
and wealth are not the same. Money is a cultural symbol that everyone must
believe in if it is to be useful. |
. |
It
can be used as a measure of wealth, a method of transferring or exchanging
wealth, and a way to store wealth. (See "wealth,"
and Principles of Wealth). |
...
.
..
...
|
How do you
raise mushrooms? You "keep them in the dark and feed them cow manure."
|
.
| This
is a slang phrase meaning the opposite of transparency. |
. |
Usually
a more rude phrase for male bovine faeces is used instead of "cow
manure". |
.
.
....
...
| Poverty
is more than a lack of money and income, more than lack of access to facilities
and services such as water, roads, education or clinics. It is the result
of “poverty of spirit” ie an attitude of hopelessness,
an ignorance of available resources, a dependence upon others, lack of
confidence, discouragement, lack of skills, lack of trust, lack of integrity
and lack of effective sustainable organization; in short, lack of good
management. See
Factors of Poverty. |
. |
Poverty
is a social problem, and calls for a social solution; poverty is not merely
the lack of income among a collection of individuals. Poverty can be reduced
by organizing and guiding poor people towards helping themselves, and by
getting stronger (empowerment) as a result
of engaging in struggles and meeting challenges. The eradication of poverty,
therefore, calls upon a sustainable improvement in management. |
.
.
...
| The
word “alleviation,” means to temporarily take away pain
and discomfort. Giving money to poor people does not end poverty. |
. |
As
mobilizers dedicated to fighting the causes not the symptoms of
poverty, we avoid this approach (mere alleviation by transferring money). |
...
.
...
| As
mobilizers, we work towards the elimination of the social problem of poverty
by analysing its causes, and taking steps to oppose and remove those causes.
Since poverty is a social problem, the solution to that problem is
social. |
. |
Two
complementary approaches to poverty elimination (communal and private)
are found in two complementary modules here: Community
Mobilization Cycle, and Income Generation
Scheme. |
.
..
...
| The
word "reduction" means to make something smaller. See
Principles
of Community Empowerment. |
. |
In
contrast to “alleviation” which temporarily treats the
symptoms of poverty, reduction is
seen as on the right pathway towards eradication. |
...
. .
...
| The
concept of primary health care, promoted and supported by WHO, is a package
of policies and practices that are of particular interest to poor people
and to people in low income nations. |
. |
The
principles in that package include putting an emphasis onto spending on
low cost health care for the common diseases, which affect the majority
of the population, rather than putting scarce resources into high cost,
sophisticated (eg high tech) curative practices that benefit only the rich. |
...
|
