The three-day PACS workshops conducted in July 2020, included between forty two and forty eight participants per group, who are beneficiaries of the Zambuko project in its various assets. Four workshops were run concurrently, at different sites, with 2 Tree of Life facilitators and Village Health Workers (VHWs) to ensure compliance with the Covid 19 regulations. The contextually appropriate and relevant tools used generated highly participatory constructive community dialogues that created awareness on the impact of stress and trauma (at individual, family and community level), coping skills, supporting others, resilience and social cohesion. The dialogues gave the community members an opportunity to listen to each other, gain insights into their successes and challenges, including discussions on possible actions. It was noted that their general common broad vision is around becoming a self-reliant community that does not depend on hand-outs. They also worked on the small steps and activities to be undertaken in addressing barriers and strengthen the enablers as they work towards their vision.
The following are some of actions the communities would want to take forward:
- Improve communication, transparency, openly addressing unfair distribution of inputs, corruption, favouritism and selfishness.
- Ensure inclusivity and finding ways of involving more men and the youth in projects and rewarding the youth fairly, including them in leadership, listening to their ideas, and rotating leadership while adhering to the constitution.
- Work with other organisations to get capacity building on marketing for their produce, livestock management, extending their gardens, growing a variety of crops and management skills of their small businesses.
- Removing silt from the dam, so that they can harvest more water, and work towards procurement of pumps and pipes.
