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FAMILY LITERACY PROJECT (FLP)

The REFLECT approach was introduced into the Family Literacy Project (FLP) soon after its establishment in March 2000, in three rural areas in the Southern Drakensberg, namely Stepmore, Lotheni and Mpumlwane. These districts have little infrastructure and most houses are made of mud and thatch with no electricity or running water. The roads from the small towns of Underberg, Himeville and Creighton to these areas are poor, and the taxi and bus services erratic.

The aim of the FLP is to make literacy a shared and valuable activity for parents and young children.
The use of the REFLECT approach has helped the project achieve this aim as it helps with communication and provides opportunities to share relevant information as well as encouraging action around issues critical to the community.
Initial sessions concentrated on how parents could support the development of early literacy skills in their children. In the second year an adult literacy component was added and, in time, post-literacy activities for the parents were introduced, all the while keeping a focus on parent and child interactions around literacy.

The findings indicate that children and adults have benefited from the programme, and families now read, not only because they need to, but because it is relaxing and enjoyable.

In early 2006 the project recruited six women as facilitators in the Pholela area of KwaZulu Natal. An important part of their in-service training was a two-week workshop to introduce them to the REFLECT approach and train them in the use of participatory rural appraisal tools to conduct analysis of their sites. An indication of the way the REFLECT approach has been internalized by project staff is that one member was able to introduce it effectively to the new facilitators.

The project continues to use REFLECT in the Underberg and Centocow areas of the province in both the family literacy group attended by adults and the children’s groups run in primary schools. At the end of a unit on Voluntary Counselling and Testing for HIV introduced this year, the action decided on by group members was that they wanted to be tested; this was something that previously they were unwilling to do. We believe that the REFLECT approach was helpful in providing an opportunity for group members to share experiences and fears relating to the pandemic and that this created the awareness of the importance of knowing one’s status and led the decision to take action.

This project also offers opportunities for integrating a sustainable livelihoods approach in these poor rural communities.

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VRCO

Vukuzenzele means 'wake up and do it for yourself' and Vukuzenzele REFLECT Community Organisation (VRCO) is using REFLECT to empower themselves and facilitate community participation and sustainable development in Orange Farm. Although the use of REFLECT for VRCO’s programmes was launched through the impetus and funding support of the German Adult Education Association, IIZ/DVV, one of the major outcomes of the process has been the formation of an autonomous community-based organisation (CBO). As a result, VRCO is using REFLECT as a tool for organizational and community development. This has attracted wider community interest in VRCO’s programmes. Because local people have meaningfully assessed their problems, and designed and implemented their own solutions, community ownership of the CBO is a living reality and sustainability of their development initiatives over the long term is a question of little concern.

How did they take control?

Seven VRCO community members were first introduced to REFLECT in 2003. At that time, the members were endeavoring to address the socio-economic impacts of HIV and AIDS in their community by raising awareness of how HIV impacts on development and vice versa. Unfortunately, the NGO that they were operating under folded in early 2004. So several community members who had been trained as REFLECT facilitators took the decision to set up their own CBO.
This group of seven facilitators used REFLECT to develop their constitution and to make decisions about how they wanted to structure their CBO. They successfully recruited a group of volunteers with technical expertise in project management and development work to serve with them as members on their Board. They attracted the services of a prestigious firm of lawyers to act on their behalf on a pro-bono basis who helped to formally register the organisation and provide on-going legal advice. They also persuaded an auditing company to provide financial services on a pro-bono basis. In addition, the organisation has attracted funding from several sources who took interest in their use of REFLECT and/or their stated objectives and planned activities.

At the same time, the VRCO members introduced REFLECT to their community and began the process of identifying the key issues affecting people’s lives. This baseline research formed the starting point for developing a 3-year Strategic Plan where local facilitators used REFLECT tools to develop their strategic plan over a 3-day period and share their outputs with their existing circle members for further consolidation.

From planning to implementation

VRCO are now implementing their strategic plan and monitoring and evaluating their progress through meetings, discussion forums and an open door feedback policy. By the end of 2005 the organisation was working with just over 120 members and they had established the following projects:

• A food security agricultural project which is selfsustaining “due to the interest and support of the wider community”;
• A home-based care service which reached 15 households with people with terminal and mental illnesses, including people living with AIDS and aims to reach 100 people by mid 2006;
• A sewing and crafts project which attracted “regular orders for products, especially aprons, from other local organisations and community members”; and,
• A youth arts, dance and drama group who “use their talents to share their learnings from discussions during their REFLECT circle meetings with wider community audiences”.

The facilitators, who all live in the informal settlement of Orange Farm near Johannesburg are proud of the success of their organisation. Bongane Radebe, Project Coordinator says: “We are extremely pleased at the success and achievements of VRCO. The prospect of expanding our activities is not just a great step forward for our organisation but will bring even more opportunities for people in Orange Farm to participate in making their own decisions regarding their own future development and progress.”

VUKUZENZELE - "Doing it for ourselves"

The food gardens grew out of the Phaphama Agricultural REFLECT circle. The group wanted to focus on agriculture to help meet the needs of HIV+ people and people living with AIDS. The project not only provides people with a source of nutrition (they grow a lot of spinach and beetroot), but also the opportunity to generate income.

The project became self-sustaining within its first three months of operation, after a small start up grant of R1 000 from Vukuzenzele. The core group of 5 people use REFLECT to plan their project, find solutions to problems, and to discuss their own priorities both at home and in the circle.

The Phaphama REFLECT Circle also has close links with the Siyaphambili Health REFLECT Circle — a group of about 30 women who offer home based care services to the community. The Siyaphambili group identifies people that need help to get a vegetable garden at home going. Phaphama members will then do the physical labour for those people too sick to tend their own garden, or they will go and teach people who are physically strong enough how to get their own vegetable garden going and take care of it. They also provide a proportion of their crops for free to those people in the later stages of a terminal illness. Everything the REFLECT circles do is down to their own planning and agreed actions through REFLECT – it’s the same for the Siyaphambili group – they chose to set up the HBC service themselves in response to basic needs. Here, a caregiver from Siyaphambili pays a home visit to Nomasonto — a single mother of four children. Nomsanto is only 35 years old and is living with AIDS. She is worried about who will care for her children when she is gone.

Conclusion

VRCO has demonstrated the power of REFLECT as a tool for organisational development and management. Here the participatory principles and philosophy of REFLECT are not confined to a specific project but have become an integral part of the day-to-day running of the organisation. This approach fosters community ownership and sustainability because those involved in running the organisation together with the wider community all participate meaningfully in decisions about how the organisation operates.

This is test content for the development of this website.Please ignore...

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*

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VRCO

Vukuzenzele means 'wake up and do it for yourself' and Vukuzenzele REFLECT Community Organisation (VRCO) is using REFLECT to empower themselves and facilitate community participation and sustainable development in Orange Farm. Although the use of REFLECT for VRCO’s programmes was launched through the impetus and funding support of the German Adult Education Association, IIZ/DVV, one of the major outcomes of the process has been the formation of an autonomous community-based organisation (CBO). As a result, VRCO is using REFLECT as a tool for organizational and community development. This has attracted wider community interest in VRCO’s programmes. Because local people have meaningfully assessed their problems, and designed and implemented their own solutions, community ownership of the CBO is a living reality and sustainability of their development initiatives over the long term is a question of little concern.

How did they take control?

Seven VRCO community members were first introduced to REFLECT in 2003. At that time, the members were endeavoring to address the socio-economic impacts of HIV and AIDS in their community by raising awareness of how HIV impacts on development and vice versa. Unfortunately, the NGO that they were operating under folded in early 2004. So several community members who had been trained as REFLECT facilitators took the decision to set up their own CBO.
This group of seven facilitators used REFLECT to develop their constitution and to make decisions about how they wanted to structure their CBO. They successfully recruited a group of volunteers with technical expertise in project management and development work to serve with them as members on their Board. They attracted the services of a prestigious firm of lawyers to act on their behalf on a pro-bono basis who helped to formally register the organisation and provide on-going legal advice. They also persuaded an auditing company to provide financial services on a pro-bono basis. In addition, the organisation has attracted funding from several sources who took interest in their use of REFLECT and/or their stated objectives and planned activities.

At the same time, the VRCO members introduced REFLECT to their community and began the process of identifying the key issues affecting people’s lives. This baseline research formed the starting point for developing a 3-year Strategic Plan where local facilitators used REFLECT tools to develop their strategic plan over a 3-day period and share their outputs with their existing circle members for further consolidation.

From planning to implementation

VRCO are now implementing their strategic plan and monitoring and evaluating their progress through meetings, discussion forums and an open door feedback policy. By the end of 2005 the organisation was working with just over 120 members and they had established the following projects:

• A food security agricultural project which is selfsustaining “due to the interest and support of the wider community”;
• A home-based care service which reached 15 households with people with terminal and mental illnesses, including people living with AIDS and aims to reach 100 people by mid 2006;
• A sewing and crafts project which attracted “regular orders for products, especially aprons, from other local organisations and community members”; and,
• A youth arts, dance and drama group who “use their talents to share their learnings from discussions during their REFLECT circle meetings with wider community audiences”.

The facilitators, who all live in the informal settlement of Orange Farm near Johannesburg are proud of the success of their organisation. Bongane Radebe, Project Coordinator says: “We are extremely pleased at the success and achievements of VRCO. The prospect of expanding our activities is not just a great step forward for our organisation but will bring even more opportunities for people in Orange Farm to participate in making their own decisions regarding their own future development and progress.”

VUKUZENZELE - "Doing it for ourselves"

The food gardens grew out of the Phaphama Agricultural REFLECT circle. The group wanted to focus on agriculture to help meet the needs of HIV+ people and people living with AIDS. The project not only provides people with a source of nutrition (they grow a lot of spinach and beetroot), but also the opportunity to generate income.

The project became self-sustaining within its first three months of operation, after a small start up grant of R1 000 from Vukuzenzele. The core group of 5 people use REFLECT to plan their project, find solutions to problems, and to discuss their own priorities both at home and in the circle.

The Phaphama REFLECT Circle also has close links with the Siyaphambili Health REFLECT Circle — a group of about 30 women who offer home based care services to the community. The Siyaphambili group identifies people that need help to get a vegetable garden at home going. Phaphama members will then do the physical labour for those people too sick to tend their own garden, or they will go and teach people who are physically strong enough how to get their own vegetable garden going and take care of it. They also provide a proportion of their crops for free to those people in the later stages of a terminal illness. Everything the REFLECT circles do is down to their own planning and agreed actions through REFLECT – it’s the same for the Siyaphambili group – they chose to set up the HBC service themselves in response to basic needs. Here, a caregiver from Siyaphambili pays a home visit to Nomasonto — a single mother of four children. Nomsanto is only 35 years old and is living with AIDS. She is worried about who will care for her children when she is gone.

Conclusion

VRCO has demonstrated the power of REFLECT as a tool for organisational development and management. Here the participatory principles and philosophy of REFLECT are not confined to a specific project but have become an integral part of the day-to-day running of the organisation. This approach fosters community ownership and sustainability because those involved in running the organisation together with the wider community all participate meaningfully in decisions about how the organisation operates.