Yesterday afternoon, I found myself sitting with my extended
host family eating out of a humongous tagine of cous cous, when my aunt asked
me how I felt about going back to America soon. I explained in broken Darija
that I will not be returning to the U.S for a very long time and that in about
2 weeks, I will be placed in a different site in Morocco to work for Peace
Corps. My family looked at me in confusion for some time and then my other aunt
broke the silence by spitting cous cous across the table in her haste to yell,
“But you are ALONE??? What will you DO??? ELASH [why]???” It occurred to me in
that moment that my host family and the rest of my community for that matter,
did not understand what kind of work Peace Corps volunteers do or why we want
to be here. In time, I will (isA) be able to answer both of those questions in
Darija. But for now, I think it’s equally important for everyone at home to
understand how exactly we are spreading peace.
When I was invited to serve for P.C Morocco back in November, I envisioned
working on projects with my community to better their environment and their
health. I had the end goal in mind and could clearly see the product of all of
our hard work. And then, several months later, I landed in Morocco and quickly
realized that it was not going to be as simple as that. There was “SO MUCH WORK
to be done”, I thought. I felt overwhelmed by the challenge and intimidated by
the language barrier. How on earth was I supposed to get anything done if I
couldn’t SPEAK?? And furthermore, how was I supposed to find out what these
people wanted from me even after I nailed the language?
Cue, P.A.C.A (Participatory and Community Assessment); the
ultimate community organization tool. Tried and tested by over 4,000
volunteers, this method has proven to be the most successful way to get
projects off the ground and effect a sustainable change.
“So what the heck is it, Bridget?” you may be excitedly
asking (I nerd out when it comes to this kind of thing).
Well. Let me give you a break down, my eager-to-change-the-world-friend!
P.A.C.A is all about garnering rich and meaningful data from
your community about what assets they already possess and then working to
expand and strengthen those. Working under the heading of Strengths Based
Training, volunteers move through a series of steps to improve what is working
and potentially do away with what is not working. The steps of this process are
as follows:
Step 1: Community Mapping – This is one of the most
effective ways to tell a community’s story. It is a geographical reference that
speaks to the division of labor, resource centers, and places of importance to
the community. The volunteer invites a group of people of different genders,
socio-economic backgrounds, and ages and describes the project to them. The
group then creates a map of all the places that are important to them (houses
of worship, schools, hospitals, government buildings, women’s centers, hang out
spots, sports clubs, etc.). Then the group presents and explains their map,
their neighborhoods, to the volunteer. A discussion should follow this about
why these places are important to them and what they like and dislike about the
current resources that are available to them.
Step 2: Daily Schedules – Understanding the normal routines
that a person in your community performs is crucial to understanding the
culture at large. It also provides insight to gender roles, and the
construction of family which may determine when it is possible to host workshops
or carry out larger projects. The process of collecting the Daily Schedules is
the same as in Community Mapping with one slight difference. The volunteer
invites a group of people of different backgrounds and separates them according
to gender. The volunteer then asks them to write down a typical schedule for
themselves. After this is done, the volunteer asks them to do the same activity
but for the opposite gender. Once finished, both groups come together and share
their results. A discussion will follow about what they took away from the
exercise.
Step 3: Seasonal Calendar – Much akin to the Daily
Schedules, discovering the seasons and holidays that your community observes is
important because it helps the volunteer know what times of the year would be
best for what projects. For instance, if you want to host weekly workshops for
women on resume building, the summer would not be a good time because A.) It’s
too hot outside and everyone stays indoors all day and B.) The kids are home
from school and it is the women’s responsibility to take care of the children.
Women would not be able to attend the workshop in the summer so perhaps hosting
another activity would be a better idea. When collecting this data, the
volunteer will invite a group of people to fill in a 12 month calendar with
personally significant events. This should not only be limited to holidays but
also to times of economic stress (like when the rain season begins) and when/if
migration occurs because of weather. People will come together afterwards and
share their results.
Step 4: Formal Interviews – While there is certainly much to
be said for informal interviews, holding formal interviews allows the volunteer
to meet with community members who are interested in helping with a project and
ask them deeper questions that they may be too intimidated to say in a large
group. This is also the time to ask the community members what changes they
would like to see in their neighborhood.
Step 5: Community Poster – Using all of the information gleaned
from the four previous steps, the volunteer will meet with community members to
present the findings and discuss the problem and potential solutions. At this
point, the volunteer can ask for ideas as to how to strengthen what assets
already exist and come up with a list of potential to-do’s in the community.
One of these to-dos can lead to a larger project.
So there you have it, my friend! This is, in a nutshell,
what Peace Corps volunteers do. We listen to the communities that we serve and
we attempt to be the catalyst for change. By living in the culture, speaking
the language and creating relationships with the people whom we serve, we
become ingrained in the society. And as such, the peoples struggles become the
volunteers struggles and the two work together to create a lasting change in
the society.
So to answer my troubled aunts’ question, I’m not yet sure
what my community will ask of me. But I have every intention to use P.A.C.A to
find out. If I can just affect one person’s life by gathering this data, the
labor will have been well worth it.
And just think… You can use P.A.C.A too!
