Citizen Involvement
Blog Post: Posted September 2, 2010, 2:17 am by Tara Noronha
Truly, skills for employment and skills for life
Country: Uganda
A few weeks ago, I was honored to serve as the Chief Judge at an interschool debate on HIV/AIDS prevention. Under a perfect blue Ugandan sky, youth from two neighboring schools prepared to deliver remarks on the importance of abstinence, safe sex, delayed marriage and healthy life choices.
A young woman delivers her part of the debate. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
I expected some of the young debaters — Peer Educators in Mercy Corps’ Youth Empowerment Programme (YEP) — to display at least some signs of anxiety and nervousness over the event. These youth were orating not only before a panel of judges, but also an audience comprised of more than 150 peers and key members of the community. Even though the Peer Educators had organised the event as part of YEP’s life skills programme, I anticipated seeing some beads of sweat, perhaps a little stuttering and maybe even a few tears. After all, public speaking terrifies most adults I know!
However, as the debate began, my predictions were quickly shattered. One by one, the young participants — all neatly dressed in crisp uniforms for the occasion — shared articulate, passionate messages about the effects of HIV/AIDS in their community. With loud, clear voices, they not only delivered powerful remarks, but also adjured their peers to share the information with their families. Members from the two debate teams also replied to complicated rebuttals with calm, thoughtful responses.
I was ineffably impressed by the confidence and aplomb of these youth. And I wasn’t the only one. With wide-eyes, their classmates keenly observed the dialogue in silence and in complete admiration. In addition to creating social awareness, these Peer Educators were empowering their fellow students, by displaying leadership skills and by serving as responsible, positive role models. Admittedly, I had a very difficult time selecting a “winning” team.
Youth deliver a radio broadcast to one million listeners on Pader's Luo FM. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
Just yesterday, I observed ten YEP Peer Educators from Wimunu Pecek school deliver a live radio broadcast on the popular Luo FM, summarizing messages from the earlier debate. Once again, I was astounded by the poise, confidence and thoughtful leadership displayed by the youth. After rigorous research and preparation, the students each gave eloquent, structured remarks on the topic, fully aware that their voices and messages were reaching more than one million listeners in eight Ugandan districts, as well as parts of southern Sudan.
So why are these activities, these life skills, so important for Ugandan youth in their transition to adulthood and in their quest for economic engagement? After all, YEP strives to enhance the employability of youth.
Over the past two months, I have been studying the factors preventing youth from gaining employment in northern Uganda. During a recent focus group discussion, a young woman named Concy shared that she had participated in a vocational training course, with the hope that the skills would provide her with both job security and a steady income.
“I completed an intensive, nine-month course in tailoring,” she told me in an exasperated voice. “But I have never been able to use the skill because I do not have money to buy a sewing machine.” Concy added that she has since forgotten the technical knowledge learned through the training. While pacifying her infant on her lap, she told me that she is still seeking work.
I have listened to many similar stories of frustration.
One male youth told me that a non-governmental organisation sponsored him to spend an entire year learning Information Technology skills; however, since graduating, he has been unable to find employment due to lack of demand for the skill in his community. (Pader Town, the capital of this district, just received electricity a few months ago.)
What I have learned through my conversations with youth — as well as local employers and consumers — is that a solid education and a mastered technical skill are certainly helpful in a securing a job or running a business; however, many other factors and resources contribute to preparing youth for business success. The lack or presence of basic life skills, such as effective communication and the ability to make critical decisions, have a profound and often overlooked impact on the “employability” of youth.
Okidi and Akanyo, Peer Educators from Wimunu Pecek School. Photo: Tara Noronha/Mercy Corps
Along with support for income generating activities, an integral part of YEP is training in life skills, or soft skills. Together, these two components holistically prepare youth for becoming successful entrepreneurs and employees. In addition to effective communication and problem-solving skills, YEP’s life skills activities encourage leadership techniques, punctuality, conflict negotiation, strong work ethics and proper hygiene, topics which differ from hard business skills and are often not fully addressed in schools.
These skills are truly life skills, as they are always marketable and transferable, even in a stagnant labour market. These personal and interpersonal skills are particularly important for youth who were former child soldiers during Uganda’s civil war and for those who spent prolonged periods in camps as internally displaced persons (IDPs). Life skills training allows youth to gain confidence and skills which will help them throughout their careers: in interviews, in managing customers and with making difficult decisions.
In Uganda, many young people feel that they are not respected or appreciated by adult figures and employers. YEP’s life skills programme encourages youth to gain confidence in their workforce capabilities and in their role in society. Through life skills activities such as the debate and radio broadcast, youth are able gain the respect of their elders and their community by demonstrating that they are capable, confident and prepared for responsible economic engagement.
Blog Post: Posted August 16, 2010, 10:37 am by Lisa Inks
Breaking ground, in more ways than one
Country: Uganda
A young woman crafts grass into a thatched roof for a building in Karamoja. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
Plumb in the middle of two conflicting communities in Karamoja, there is an area of bush called Moruitit. Moruitit has long been a hideout for the competing Jie and Dodoth warriors who have rustled cattle, stolen property and ambushed vehicles in an ongoing conflict.
But we might, tentatively, say that’s history. That was before the start of three joint livelihood projects orchestrated by Building Bridges to Peace (BBP), a Mercy Corps programme that strengthens both social and economic relationships between conflicting groups. That was before dozens of Jie and Dodth walked the several-kilometre jaunt last week to camp out at Moruitit and clear the way for a joint cassava farm, joint forest and joint cattle market.
Men carrying the polewood that will help create buildings. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
The area is bustling now — men stirring vats of beans radiating plumes of steam, people springing up huts in neat clusters and clearing an area for a new health centre — as Jie and Dodoth get cash for work, side by side.
On the fifth day of the project, I spoke with a cluster of men coming in to take lunch and, with one eyebrow raised, asked them where they were from. Their alternating responses resounded: Rengen, Sidok, Rengen, Rengen, Sidok, and so on. These men, who by most accounts are in conflict, were propping their elbows on each other’s shoulders and joking together with garden hoes in hand.
One year ago, 20 percent of communities here had no hope for peace. But when we conducted a midterm assessment in June, that number had reduced to five percent. BBP has spent the last year in Karamoja facilitating intercultural exchanges and peace dialogues, establishing Peace Committees to resolve disputes within and between communities, and planning the implementation of livelihoods-building projects. These projects seem a long time in coming: staff took months to facilitate community brainstorming meetings, build consensus among conflicting groups and buoy up the capacity of local partners to deal with the day-to-day challenges of running such a project.
A man tethers polewood together for a roof. Photo: Lisa Inks/Mercy Corps
To be sure — despite the stunning visual of integration — challenges will remain. Staff members are working vigilantly to address food, water and health needs, take appropriate security measures and maintain an air of conviviality when historic bitterness makes the flaring of tensions a constant risk.
But these three projects are just the beginning: over the next few weeks, BBP will be implementing three more, in three different sites that have long been tracts of fear, mistrust and restricted movement. And it will continue to use peace dialogues and intercultural exchanges to support the livelihoods projects in addressing the largely economic roots of conflict.
The midterm evaluation also found enormous support for this multifaceted approach unique to BBP: during one phase of the participatory assessment, nine out of nine groups said that people will stop raiding cattle if they have other livelihood options. As the joint farms and joint markets grow and hopefully flourish, communities may finally put that belief to the test.
When I came to Karamoja, in the beginning of June, a bridge near Moruitit displayed a chilling portent: half of a human skull, perched on the ledge, a warning signal to all who passed. When we left the site of the joint livelihoods projects, our spirits were lifted. And the skull that had been on the bridge was nowhere in sight.
Blog Post: Posted August 15, 2010, 6:37 am by Sarah Royall
What is community?
Country: Tajikistan
Tajikistan is a small former Soviet Republic situated just north of Afghanistan. The contrast between the two neighboring countries is striking. The occasional bullet-ridden and bombed-out buildings alongside slowly decomposing scraps of former tanks are regular reminders of the violent six-year civil war that ended just barely a decade ago and went largely unpublicized in the West. Some communities have suffered enduring conflicts with violent flare-ups as recently as last year — and this is where you’ll find Mercy Corps working.
Everybody helps out in Tajik communities. Photo: Sadullo Ubaidulloev for Mercy Corps
Despite these past conflicts, all over Tajikistan we find communities working together to promote peace and improve one another’s situations. “Hashars” are Tajik community get-togethers. Unlike the neighborly meet-ups in my neighborhood in America where we share gossip over drinks, here the community gets together to work on a project that benefits everyone, such as improving the roads or cutting hay that everyone can use.
A community in Obi Mehnat, Rasht Valley gathers to discuss their ideas to tackle youth unemployment. Photo: Sarah Royall for Mercy Corps
On a recent field visit to a village high in the mountains, we came to what appeared to be the end of a barely passable road. It’s obvious to see why the community has asked for our help in improving these roads. The community members decided to start the work themselves and organised a community hashar, repairing the worst part of the road. Since there are so many miles of roads that are in need of serious repairs, especially before the challenging winter weather sets in, our contribution can stretch a little further now that the community has started the first few feet.
When our recent project began in Tajikistan, we started by forming Community Action Groups (CAGs) who steer all of our work in these villages. A few weeks ago, our team led a training about the Vision for Change with one of our CAGs. Afterwards, the participants were eager to share how they related to our values. It was clear that this really resonated with them, especially because the idea of community-led development is already a strong concept in their culture.
Posted August 9, 2010
How a Tractor Changes Everything
Country: Kosovo
This tractor, the purchase of which was facilitated by Mercy Corps project funds, is helping once-contentious ethnic groups in one part of Kosovo work together to improve their farmlands and livelihoods. Photo: Mercy Corps
The village of Videja is a rural community of 1,000 residents near the Dukagjini Valley, the heart of western Kosovo's agricultural lands. Kosovo Serbs, who for centuries have represented the vast majority of the population in Videje, are still recovering from the conflict of 1999 through continuous post-war refugee and internally displaced persons returns processes. They face high unemployment and few income-earning opportunities.
Farming and raising livestock are the main sources of income for all ethnic groups that live in Videje and its seven surrounding villages. These ethnic groups — Kosovo Albanians, Kosovo Serbs and Roma — live in relative harmony today and are eager to find ways for cooperation and common welfare, putting their past differences and conflicts aside.
An important element of Kosovo’s future stability and overall prosperity lies in the country’s ability to return and re-integrate internally displaced people and refugee populations to their native homes in a peaceful and sustainable fashion. Through Mercy Corps’ Kosovo Economic Support for Sustainable Returns (KESSR) programme, we are facilitating these peaceful returns by partnering with municipal governments to provide household grants for items like greenhouses and agricultural equipment to help families return and re-establish themselves. To improve the economic environment for returns, the Videje community and municipal government presented a project to Mercy Corps to purchase tractor and tractor attachments for the community’s needs. With a 30 percent contribution from the community, Mercy Corps supplied the remaining necessary funds towards purchase of the tractor.
Nominated by his peers to lead this initiative, Nemanja Vulicevic — a 21-year-old Kosovo Serb returnee from Videje — is representing his fellow farmers to the municipality and leading activities under this project. Returned in 2005 from a refugee camp in Krusevac, Serbia, Nemanja — who lives together with his parents, brother, sister-in-law and their three young children — proudly shows the 400 working hours registered on the tractor’s metre.
“We had nothing without the tractor — the tractor does not care about nationality or religion,” Nemanja says.
Seven months after the programme began, the economic benefits to the community are evident: more arable land planted, more corn harvested and more grass and alfalfa baled. The tractor has also provided chronically needed transport of products to local market or raw materials (including seeds, fertilizer and timber) to households.
“There are families that are planning to return and their land is already planted; when they return they will have wheat, corn and alfalfa to eat or trade,” Nemanja explains.
Perhaps more importantly — in addition to the economic benefits — the tractor provides a free-of-charge service to farmers for seven area villages, all of them of mixed ethnicity, all of which were formerly in conflict with one another. Now, more than 90 Albanian, Serb and Roma farmers all use the tractor to plow, harvest, bale, fertilize or transport, improving their farmlands and communities together.
Posted August 9, 2010
Not Small Potatoes
Country: Kosovo
Naim Fejza in his field. Photo: Mercy Corps
Naim Fejza is a veteran potato farmer in the small town of Mogila in southern Kosovo. For his entire adult life, he and his household — which includes his parents, wife and three children — have eked out a living on the small income from the sales of potatoes on their farm.
Mogila is a typical Kosovo village of 1,700 residents, where communities of both Albanian and Serb ethnic backgrounds live and work together precariously, relying on crops such as potatoes, wheat and corn for their livelihoods. The mixed-ethnic Mogila Farmers’ Association and municipal authorities approached Mercy Corps with a proposal to provide assistance to farmers of all ethnic backgrounds, in order to improve crop production capacity and overall economic standing.
Following a series of community meetings, the Farmers’ Association and other local farmers nominated Naim to act as the primary representative of the project to Mercy Corps and the local government. With support from the local government and the Farmers’ Association, Mercy Corps facilitated the delivery of farm equipment to Mogila to make their agricultural ventures more efficient. The farmers rent the machinery from the association to use on their lands.
Six months after the project's start, implementation is showing its benefits to the farmers, the Farmer's Association and the wider community. With the new machinery, Naim and the Farmers’ Association have increased the surface planted with varieties of vegetables by an average of more than 100 percent. At the same time, the cost of planting has dropped in half, from the previo£90 per hectare to the present £42
Some farmers have doubled their sales from previous years. Farmers also export their products to Macedonia, Albania and Serbia, as well as selling at local markets. In addition, with the new surplus income, Naim has invested in and built a 500-square-metre greenhouse for pepper seedlings that will increase the quality and their quantity of peppers produced. The Farmers’ Assocation has also grown from 30 to 100 members.
Naim, the pleased father of three, says, “I simply can’t explain the value of Mercy Corps’ assistance — it has doubled the planted surface, cut the cost in half and given meaning to the term ‘profit’.”
Blog Post: Posted August 5, 2010, 5:01 am by Lila Wade
“Lemon Aid" for Mercy Corps
Country: United States
Topics: Citizen Involvement, Children
The three young philanthropic entrepreneurs who are raising "Lemon Aid" to help Mercy Corps efforts around the world. Photo: Lila Wade/Mercy Corps
The sound of young voices calling “lemonade for sale,” is frequent on my summertime bike rides home from work. Yesterday, I was surprised to hear “lemonade for sale, benefit for Mercy Corps.”
I stopped, less thirsty than curious to find out how these kids from my neighborhood knew about Mercy Corps. Well, they explained — after pouring me a brimming paper cupful — they’re raising £90 for Mercy Corps, and the money will be due in August. So far, they’ve earned £60 from their stand, as well as a circus they put on for their neighbors.
These philanthropic self-starters — Ella, Connor, and Vincent — went into business this summer after one of their mothers received an email invitation to participate in Mercy Corps' MPower programme. She told me, “I was going to send requests to family members and friends, but then I got to thinking, why not get our neighbors involved as well?”
Also, by reaching out locally, she could lean on her team of willing helpers, giving them a great opportunity to be community activists. On their poster —written in marker — Ella, Connor, and Vincent, inscribed, “Be the Change,” a slogan they already understand better than most.
After chatting for a while, I left feeling incredibly refreshed, not just from the beverage, but also about Mercy Corps’ prospects for the future.
Video: Posted July 9, 2010 by Dan Sadowsky
Mercy Corps Action Center Aims to Educate
Country: United States
Topics: Youth, Citizen Involvement
Blog Post: Posted June 21, 2010, 8:36 pm by Juan Christie
Training of trainers opens the door for a new skill
Country: Indonesia
Topics: Citizen Involvement
I usually did not go to trainings as either speaker or facilitator. I admit that public speaking is not my thing, be it speaking to five persons or bigger crowds. I tend to channel my anxiety by talking as fast as I could, hoping along the time that nobody asked my questions so I can go back to my seat.
I have a totally different view after I attended the Training of Trainers (ToT) held by Mercy Corps’ West Sumatra Hygiene Promotion Team at the Pangeran City Hotel in Padang City.
Here, the team provided trainings for 25 health cadres from sub-district Kuranji and Kurao Pagang. Also, four health officials from local PUSKESMAS/ POSYANDU (health posts) attended the ToT. Mercy Corps also invited the City Health Board (or DKK/ Dewan Kesehatan Kota) to send their staffs as presenters for the first day of the training.
Here’s where things grow more fun: Mercy Corps’ staffs facilitated the ToT and even delivered some of the materials during the ToT!
I’m telling you, seeing how the cadres were actively involved in every process of the ToT and how the Hygiene Promotion team led them through each agenda really ignited my spirit. I even agreed when Teuku Ambral, the team leader for Hygiene Promotion, offered me to lead a session.
Lucky me, just before my session, Teuku gave the participants facilitation techniques as well as what it takes to make a good facilitator. Shamefully (since I lack many of them) but thankfully, I absorbed these materials quickly and put them into practices in an instant.
Of course, it is very rare that your first attempt is perfect. At the end of my session, I opened up a little secret to the participants: “This is my first session as a facilitator. Hopefully it can motivate all of you the same as your courage and spirit moved me.” The participants nodded, smiled, and clapped their hands respectfully – so I think it is safe to say that I pulled it off.
In the end, I led another session the next day. A big thanks to the Hygiene Promotion team and Mercy Corps for the time and opportunity.
Blog Post: Posted June 15, 2010, 5:11 pm by Heather Hanson
The benefits of community-led development in insecure environments
Topics: Civil Society, Citizen Involvement
I have read a lot of research studies in my life, and so I know that lots of research seems to turn up things that we already knew. In some ways, that’s also the case with the study Mercy Corps is about to launch today.
Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
We carried out this independent study because decades of experience provided us with so much anecdotal evidence suggesting that it is vitally important to involve people in their own development from the start – even during and just after open conflict. And although there have been tons of studies proving the value of participation in development efforts, in conflict and post-conflict setting we saw donors going in the opposite direction – favoring quick impact projects to meet urgent needs rather than laying the groundwork for people’s participation in the long-term development of their own communities.
I’ve been managing this research effort for over a year now and today I am struck by how simple it all looks now that it is finally done. In fact, I know that there was nothing simple about this study – from beginning to end it has been a constant challenge. Without the dedication, vision and skills of many Mercy Corps staff and outside experts it would never have been completed.
First, there’s the countries that we chose to carry out research in. It’s not exactly easy to make your way around Iraq and Afghanistan and interview community leaders and members. Not only did we have to think about security issues, we also had to consider our methodology very carefully to ensure that the people being interviewed felt free to share their opinions with interviewers. In normal research settings this is tough, but in countries with such complex histories of conflict one has to consider many more factors. Our research tools had to be translated into three languages. The interview teams had to include half women to ensure interviews could be completed with designated women in field locations. Random samples had to be reworked and adjusted when security conditions changed where we could safely carry out interviews.
Second, there’s the question that motivated our research. Much research on international development aims to evaluate whether a project has been successful at reaching its basic goals and objectives. Too often that produces measures of output, not of impact. But we wanted to do something altogether different. We wanted to understand people’s perceptions of different development efforts. We wanted to see – through their eyes – what really matters most for people in moments of conflict or post-conflict when things are still unstable and they urgently need assistance to rebuild their lives.
What we found was not a surprise to us. We found that development efforts are viewed as most effective when people are so actively involved that they feel like the project is theirs. This sense of ownership is a real sign that these efforts matter to local people – because they themselves are creating the changes that they value most. We also found that in conflict and post-conflict settings the problems facing local residents can vary considerably, making involvement of community leaders and community members even more important for ensuring that programmes address the needs considered most urgent by local residents. Finally, we found that working hand in hand with local people was essential to creating trust, which is the basic building block for collaborative work to rebuild fragile institutions.
I hope you’ll check out the full result of our study. We are sharing it widely with policy makers, donors and the public, with the hope that we can share with a broad audience the amalgamated voices of many of the courageous Afghans and Iraqis who we’ve worked with over many years.
Blog Post: Posted June 2, 2010, 12:21 pm by Allison Huggins
Taking a step forward to protect women's rights
Country: Central African Republic
Allison Huggins (middle) shakes hands with a participant of Mercy Corps' Women's Empowerment Programme on the outskirts of Bangui, Central African Republic. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps
My name is Allison Huggins and I manage Mercy Corps’ women’s rights programmes in the Central African Republic. I came here after working with women’s groups in Rwanda and Eastern Congo for three years. After my first year working with Mercy Corps, I developed our women’s legal support project after the baseline study that we completed on women’s rights violations showed the extent of violence that women across the country face.
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