P.A.C.A

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!