MEETING NEEDS

PROVEN METHODOLOGY

THE CDE APPROACH

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
     
GOALS FOR AN EFFECTIVE PROGRAM

METHODS TO INTRODUCE CDE
       Participatory Learning (PLA)
       Awareness Meetings
       School Health Screening

TRAINING PROGRAMS AND  MATERIALS

AVAILABLE TRAININGS AND LESSON PLANS

RESOURCES

CONTACT US!

info-cdc@pc-intouch.com

It takes approximately one year to enter a community to prepare the people for CDE, which includes the following activities:

Participatory Learning in Action (PLA)
A series of participatory exercises are held with the community. This helps the community to identify their rural needs, not just their wants. With their needs numerated they can make plans and implement necessary changes to improve their lives.

 Awareness Meetings
Talking with community leaders to explain the program and to impart a vision for Community Development Education (CDE) is a vital first step. Our desire is to help people understand they have the responsibility for their own health and that people need to be dealt with in a wholistic way.

The next step is an  Awareness Meeting.  This meeting is spread over 10 sessions with two to three class hours per day.  Generally, the sessions are one week apart, but it can also be compacted into four days of more intensive awareness-raising.

Everyone from the community is invited to participate in the meeting in one or more of the sessions.  All sessions are based on small group discussion.

At the end of the sessions, the community should have a good understanding of what their community is currently doing, the community’s feelings about themselves, and what a CDE program is all about.  The desired outcome is to recruit people to be trained as CDEs, as the community undertakes projects such as protecting water sources, digging wells, or building and using improved pit latrines.  At this point, the people must decide whether they want what is being offered.

School Health Screening for Children:
Another way to create community ownership upon entering the community is to take a medical team to a local school where screening of all students is offered. The children are screened in nine health areas, such as height, weight, parasites or worms, hemoglobin, etc. After the tests have been completed, a parents' meeting is called and each parent is given a written report on the health status of their child or children.  The parents are not given their child's health report unless they attend the meeting. In addition, the health team summarizes the particular health problems that were found in the school.

The health team then asks, "What are you going to do about these problems?"  This starts a dialogue among the parents that leads to the parents planning what they are going to do about a specific problem.  For example, in one school, worms were a major problem. As a result pit latrines were built by the community.

This approach creates a high degree of interest on the part of the parents and helps them to plan and put the plans into action, giving them ownership and responsibility for the program. Once the community has solved one problem, an offer is made by the health team to train local CDEs, in order to provide for their ongoing health needs.

© CDC2005