The second SEED training course – Community Development 2 – took place in Gauteng in early July 2008. Building on what was learnt in the introductory course, participants got to grips with three practical tools to encourage members of the communities they work with to actively participate in their own development.
As Janine Ward (ttt4c Church Liaison) said, “what better example do we have to follow than Jesus Christ Himself – the greatest community development worker on earth!”
The key word throughout the 2-day training was participation, and especially child participation. Using a range of resources, Janine taught participants how to use community mapping, a problem prioritization chart and the problem tree to involve all community members in discussing key problems, identifying potential solutions and deciding on an action plan to resolve the problems themselves.
Participants felt empowered to return to their churches and projects with a practical tool to start afresh on meeting the needs of vulnerable children.
Some evaluation comments from the training:
In answer to “what new things did you learn about community development?”
‘I was very excited by the step-by-step approach to analysing what communities perceived their problems to be and how they were able to prioritize the problems and identify possible solutions’
‘For children I never thought that there is a way that can make them feel responsible to what is happening in the community’
‘I was reminded that I must not force my ideas on the people, but that they must choose what they need’
In answer to “what will you do differently when you return to your ministry?”
‘I would like our ministry to re-assess our goals so that we do the enabling from the bottom up instead of from the top down’
‘Call a meeting and do this what I have learnt with communities, and also youth and children as well’
‘Proper planning and prioritizing issues – perception has changed how to approach matters that we need to deal with’