During the Rural Participatory Diagnostic, people told us what their main problems were. Now it is time to see what can be done. Most problems have been stated in a general way such as `lack of water‘ or `hunger‘. The first step is to try and find the causes for the problem. The first steps are usually not that difficult. There is a lack of water because there are not enough boreholes.
This is a first step, but then you have to inquire carefully what people mean exactly by `not enough boreholes‘. The answer seems obvious enough, but there are a few pitfalls. One is translation and the other is that just about everybody often does not realise that what is obvious for them, is not neccesarily obvious to others. Sometimes, a lack of boreholes means that there simply are no boreholes, but at other times there are plenty of boreholes, but they have broken down or are inaccessible.
After we get to the root of the problem, it is time to think about solutions.
tome causes are left untouched, there is not much you can do about low rainfall or water tables that are 150 m deep. But yu can try to make the best of the situation with other solutions which sometimes require thinking outside the box. This is often the more difficult bit, especially if you want everyone to contribute. The people we work with have little access to information and travel very little and therefore thinking up new solutions does not come easy for them. We provide them with more information, but even then it is not always easy to grasp the possibilities of new techniques straight away.
But ours is a pilot-project, so we are supposed to come up with new and innovative solutions. The whole participatory approach is actually new for Angola, but we are also supposed to introduce new technical solutions. So occasionaly we have to steer the discussins a little bit.
This is a first step, but then you have to inquire carefully what people mean exactly by `not enough boreholes‘. The answer seems obvious enough, but there are a few pitfalls. One is translation and the other is that just about everybody often does not realise that what is obvious for them, is not neccesarily obvious to others. Sometimes, a lack of boreholes means that there simply are no boreholes, but at other times there are plenty of boreholes, but they have broken down or are inaccessible.
After we get to the root of the problem, it is time to think about solutions.
tome causes are left untouched, there is not much you can do about low rainfall or water tables that are 150 m deep. But yu can try to make the best of the situation with other solutions which sometimes require thinking outside the box. This is often the more difficult bit, especially if you want everyone to contribute. The people we work with have little access to information and travel very little and therefore thinking up new solutions does not come easy for them. We provide them with more information, but even then it is not always easy to grasp the possibilities of new techniques straight away.
But ours is a pilot-project, so we are supposed to come up with new and innovative solutions. The whole participatory approach is actually new for Angola, but we are also supposed to introduce new technical solutions. So occasionaly we have to steer the discussins a little bit.
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