Community Participation Guide Lines

Introduction

Society is a combination of individuals assembled to p eruse a common goal and to

coop erate in solving the problems of their lives. Social activities in fact, create an
atmosp here of trust among p eop le, so they should coop erate with each other, to
identity their needs, to use the available resources and to solve their common
p roblems.

Thus, by such social activities relations are established among individuals. By social
work we can show the p eop le how to find their p roblems by themselves and search
means and way s for its solution.

Information should be given to the p eop le about the existing energy, potentials and
cap abilities for solving p roblems of which they are not aware. The people should
know that a social worker is resp onsible for showing them how to coop erate with
each other and he only help s p eop le to help themselves .

The purpose of social animation is to organize the people in such a way that their
adequate rep resentation should exist in the community If a community is organized,
it will be easy for them to p erform p ractical works in a better way and organized
community will be able to identify its p roblems but it should also look for p ractical
methods to use existing means and resources which p revails in the society.

A very significant issue for the particip ants is indeed that the right of decision
making lies at community level.

Decision making consists of two ap proaches i.e.,

T OP D O W N A P PR OA C H & B OT TO M U P A PP R OA CH

When instructions come from external p lanner's level, to the target groups , this is
top -down app roach, but if the target group s are involved in the p lanning cy cle and
their op inion and p otentials are considered then , it is bottom-up ap p roach.

The bottom-up ap p roach sup p orts all those activities that are often sketched, started,
administered and controlled by the member of a community . In this kind of ap proach
the members of the community have more engagement in guiding a program that have
been prepared by them and they are the beneficiaries by their active particip ation.

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In short the p rogram is made and organized by the p eop le themselves at the local
level and they have the share in its implementation.

In the bottom-up app roach there is a sense of relevance, equality and coop eration.
The people not only follow instruction , but also assess and evaluate op inions and
p rop osals.

The bottom-up ap p roach is required for organizing the community as well, so that it
organizes itself in working groups.

When the community is organized, a community representative or a leader and his

team is chosen by the community itself, In this way , the community can have a
control over the team and works systematically.

In social work awareness and motivation of the target group s is a top p riority . When
the community is aware and motivated , things are done orderly and are sup ervised in
app rop riate manner.

Philosophy

“No Education comes to the community unless the community w ants it.”

And when the community wants it then the rep resentative of the community should
be involved. For the involvement of the members of the community in the process of
p lanning , imp lementation and evaluation the following p rinciples should be taken
into consideration:

♦ Since in most of the p rojects the p rop erty or contribution of the people are
not involved, the community do not have the sense of ownership therefore
they take little interest in it. They do not have the feeling of belonging to it.
But if the p rop erty or contribution of the community is vested in them , then
the people show much interest in the p lanning and implementation.
Therefore, the community should be given the insight to think of the p rojects
as their own and to take active particip ation in them.

♦ Those p lans which are chalked out without involving the community do not
motivate and involve the community that is why the community does not
realize its imp ortance and remains careless and indifferent about them.
Therefore, the community should be stimulated for taking active p articipation
and to think that their p lans are for their own benefit and that they should
take interest in them.

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♦ These p lans which are being chalked out without involving the community are
considered less ap p rop riate by the community and they develop s the habit of
remaining indifferent.

♦ Usually the community does not pay for the cap ital and operational cost of
the scheme therefore they do not care for its maintenance .

♦ It has been proved that some community particip ation models have been
successful in some of the schemes, e.g. water supp ly. Such activities should
be p resented to the community as model. The success of one community
should be p resented to others as an examp le.

♦ Provisions should be considered to p revent mishandling of the financial

resources of the funding and imp lementing organization. Therefore the
community should be involved in all sort of financial work them, so that the
p eop le keep themselves informed about the expenses and even check p assages
of misuse themselves.

Objectives

• Convey knowledge to the people so that they are brought into p osition to
utilize their internal resources by their own individual and collective
innovation.
• Introduce the element of relevance among Afghans towards the education of
their children for the development and reconstruction of their homeland.
• Introduce low cost alternatives and means for the educational activities in the
Refugees camp s.
• Check the wastage and leakage of the means and resources and to find way s to
p revent them.
• Prevent and control the dropout, dep rivation or exp ulsion of students .
• Imp rove the quality of education .
• App ly scientific methods for help ing p eop le to help themselves, according
to individual and community needs.

Methodology

To achieve the above objectives and purpose the following methodology should be
used:

• To study the idea of Community Particip ation in the context of administrative,

economic and social sy stem of the Afghan refugees.

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 • The sp irit of “self reliance” should be created in the community , so that they
become self reliant and their dep endence on foreign aid and on donors is
decreased.
• Awareness and resp onsibility for education should be created through training
and organizational develop ment among Afghan refugees communities.
• The organizational develop ment is adapted to the Afghan working system and
social structure that enables the refugees to achieve their objectives
successfully .
• The community itself should take part in the planning cycle.
• Resp onsibility should be diverted to the community for the follow up of the
p lans.
• To make the refugees aware to realize the need and imp ortance of the
education and its sustainability under stressful situation for the reconstruction
of the Afghanistan.
• Establishment of institutions such as school management committees, p arents
teachers association.
• Five step s community organization p rocess will be executed in the target areas.
• Through SM C ,community shares its point of views, op inions and sometimes
demands and such can help in judging the existing atmosp here in the camp.

Guidelines for the Organizational Development

Step 1. Information / Introduction

a) Rep resentative gathering of community members.

b) Provision of Information on CD & CP.
c) Provision of information on COPE Project.
d) Recording of response.

Step 2. Dialogues with community

a) Rep resentative gathering of community & elders and opinion

leaders.
b) Feed back from gathering.
c) Discussion of options & alternatives regarding CP.
d) Discussion (guidance) on formation of school committees.

Step 3. Formation of committees

a) Definition (formation of school committees).

b) Confirmation of the membership.
c) Definition of the role & responsibilities of the member.

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 d) Definition of the role & responsibilities of the school committee.

Step 4. Agreement / training

a) Meeting of the school committee in the school.

b) Training of the school committee to imp rove their organizational
skills.
c) Prep aration of the record and agreement by committee.
d) Signing of the agreement & assignment.

Step 5. Joint Planning

a) Prep aration of the assignment by committee.

b) Identification of the resources.
c) Prep aration of a sy stem for op eration and management.
d) Follow up of the assignment.

Guideline for the Training of the School Management Committees

COPE p roject is focused on following objectives.

• To p rovide teaching / learning material to teachers and students.

• To facilitate the training of the teachers by BEFARe.
• To imp lement, check and supervise the p rimary education for Afghan
refugee children.
• To p romote the concept of self help among refugees for the p rimary
education of their children .
• To p romote the concep t of self-reliance among the refugees.

School Management Committees

• The purpose of the School M anagement Committees is to help the school

administration in imp roving the educational conditions of the refugee
children.
• To create awareness among the refugee communities regarding their
p articip ation for the sustainability of the education programs, and to
p romote the message of self help.

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Criteria for the School Management Committees

The School Management Committee should be :

) Non political
) Voluntary
) Take decision with consensus
) Established by the community and for the community
) Acceptable to the community

Main activities of SMC

• Resp onsible for the camp and their students

• Resp onsible and accountable to COPE
• Resp onsible for keep ing record of the income and expenditure of the
community raised school funds on voluntary bases.
• To take care of the primary education of their children.
• To identify ways and means for the community particip ation and self
help .
• To create confidence in the community so that they should take active
p articip ation in all kind of educational activities and to follow up the
educational programs regularly .
• To p romote Community Particip ation for the educational activities.
• To keep continue the educational programs for the betterment of their
children.
• To work not only for the community awareness and community
p articip ation but also for the sustainability of the programs.

The purpose of establishment of the SMC

For promotion and sustainability of the educational activities in the school it is

imp ortant that the community should establish school committees, which help
school administration in organization and supervision of educational process. Once
the committee is established, the community realizes and accep ts the resp onsibility
the education for their children.
Once the school committee is established, it helps the school administration in
different activities. These are:
• Basic information of the community.
• Identification the basic needs of the community.
• Identification of local resources and to utilize them for sustainability of school.

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• Planning and strategy for implementation for achieving goal.
• Motivate the p eop le to help themselves.
• Creating awareness for the imp ortance of education.
• Organize meetings of the community for the solving p roblems.
• Help school administration in maintaining the discip line of the school.
• Keep record of income and exp enditure of voluntarily raised funds.
• Assist school administration to up lift education and standard.
• Sup p ort poor and disabled children for their education.
• Rep air and maintain the school even if funds are not available.
• Organize meetings with parents on every two months bases.
• Coordinate sports events for mental and p hy sical growth of their children.
• Arrange meetings of the committee at least once a month with the head
teachers.

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