SOCIAL MOBILISATION

Rationale

Even as new advances in science and technology promise new vistas on the horizon of human development and welfare, our ability to apply these advances lags behind, particularly for the benefit of those who need them most. This dilemma and challenge has pre-occupied the international development community for some time. Methods to improve management of centrally planned programs, endeavors to generate critical political will to provide appropriate direction and support to development programs, and efforts to involve communities as decision makers and implementers of their own development have received considerable attention. Communicators, educators and marketers have contributed to efforts that aim at the application of knowledge. Change agents and grassroots organizers have urged the empowerment of those segments of society whose participation and involvement is crucial in the effort toward equity and justice.

There is no escape, however, from the fact that development involves change, and change involves complex interaction among groups in different segments of society who hold different attitudes, values and interests. Changes made within one group affect other groups. Isolated attempts to involve various groups are not enough. There is a need to tackle these complex tasks in a broader strategic framework. Training and applied research in mobilization work for development are necessary.

Concept

Social Mobilization, as defined by RAY OF HOPE FOUNDATION, is a broad scale movement to engage people's participation in achieving a specific development goal through self-reliant efforts. It involves all relevant segments of society: decision and policy makers, opinion leaders, bureaucrats and technocrats, professional groups, religious associations, commerce and industry, communities and individuals. It is a planned decentralized process that seeks to facilitate change for development through a range of players engaged in interrelated and complementary efforts. It takes into account the felt needs of the people, embraces the critical principle of community involvement, and seeks to empower individuals and groups for action.

Mobilizing the necessary resources, disseminating information tailored to targeted audiences, generating intersectional support and fostering cross-professional alliances are also part of the process. While the components of the process may be everyday practice in many development programs, they tend to be taken up in isolation of each other. Social mobilization in total aims at a continuum of activities in a broad strategic framework. The process encompasses dialogue and partnership with a wide spectrum of societal elements. At the policy level, the outcomes should be a supportive framework for decision making and resource allocation to empower communities to act at the grassroots level. The outcomes should be people's active involvement ranging from identifying a need to implementation in achieving the development objective and evaluation effort. The solidarity of bureaucrats and technocrats and a broad alliance of partners among various non-governmental groups are equally critical for the attainment of any change-oriented development goal. Simply stated, social mobilization calls for a journey among partners and results in the successful transformation of development goals into societal action.

Though circumstances differ from country to country and often from one part of a country to another, health programs depend upon the collaboration of other sectors. The societal mobilization strategy calls for partnership with all stake holders, which are illustrated in the diagram:

I. Political - policy makers

The extreme left column names some types of policy makers. Advocacy with and among leaders in this group helps foster the commitment that will clear the way for action. The goal here is to build consensus with sound data, to create a knowledgeable and supportive environment for decision-making, including the allocation of adequate resources.

II. Bureaucratic/Technocratic – government workers and technical experts

Policy makers depend on the technocrats, bureaucrats, and service professionals to provide the rationale for decisions as well as to plan and implement programs. This sector includes disparate groups, each with its own agenda, conflicting interests and concerns. Harmonizing the disparate units in this sector is probably one of the greatest challenges in development, because development specialists have hitherto failed to recognize how difficult it is to foster unity among government units and technical groups.

III. Non-governmental sector

This covers a multitude of interests. Non governmental organizations for special purposes, social institutions and associations that represent organized support, religious groups with their ideological bends, commerce and industry that operate on a for-profit basis, and professional groups that exist to advance their interests are here. Though difficult to mobilize, they do not hide their positions. If their stakes are given recognition, they are important partners and allies to mobilize the civil society for various health objectives.

IV. Community Groups

Community leaders, schools, churches, mosques and grassroots groups are critical to get communities involved. They help transform development goals into action. Unfortunately, they are often not given a voice in identifying problems and designing solutions. Popular participation takes place here.

V. Households and Individuals

Individual actions are the ultimate pay-off of the health program. In the household, where such behavioral actions take place, key individuals in traditional society often hold sway. There needs to be deliberate action to inform and educate individuals in the household so that they can make informed choices.

BY BRENALD CHINYOWA

FOUNDERR & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF RAY OF HOPE FOUNDATION

CELL + 263 777 897 586

EMAIL : infor.rohf@gmail.com

SKYPE : brenald1

WEBSITE : http://rayofhopef.wix.com/zimbabwe

“saving the vulnerable child”

APPROVE TO DEVELOPMENT

The decade of the 80s was characterized by many as one of retrogression for development, especially in a large number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Latin America and South Asia. In a bleak landscape dotted with setbacks in social and economic development, the Child Survival and Development initiative stood out as a beacon of hope and one of the few positive forward movements. The solid achievements of the Universal Child Immunization and Control of Diarrheal Disease programs have demonstrated that concerted efforts at mobilizing various elements of society for a common developmental goal can overcome long odds and reach goals hitherto thought unattainable in a limited time-frame of just a few years.

Mainstreaming PSS

RAY OF HOPE FOUNDATION has adopted the following strategies in fulfilling its mandate:

Strategy 1: Use advocacy to promote the mainstreaming of psychosocial care and support in all aspects of child development.

• Strengthen national orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) networks to mainstream psychosocialsupport into their member organizations’ policies and practices, for example REPSSI participated in the Namibian National OVC conference in 2005 during which their National OVC Strategy was inaugurated. REPSSI’s role focussed around ensuring that there was child and youth participation in this process.

• Sensitize, encourage and support partners to mainstream activities and forms of organizations where children and youth assume responsibilities as social actors. The Vijana Simama Imara programme in HUMULIZA - a kids savings club from Tanzania - is an amazing example.

• Develop mainstreaming guidelines for enhancing the capacity of multi-country organizations tointegrate psychosocial support into policies, practice, and care. REPSSI is currently working with Save the Children UK in scaling up community sensitization to psychosocial support through the ‘Journey ofLife’ tool

• Support policy development and enforcement at both regional and national levels.

Strategy 2: Develop, share, and disseminate knowledge, skills, and expertise in the application ofpsychosocial care and support with partners at all levels.

• Use reflective and interactive processes for capturing, developing, and sharing knowledge with community groups and organizations. An example here is Memory Work itself, which is both a therapeutic tool as well as a powerful participatory reflective and qualitative research instrument. By engaging with their own stories and sharing them with others, this kind of work spills into another domain which is very useful in communicating and understanding a wide range of complex issues not easily captured by empirically structured quantitative research methods.

• Through collaborative processes, harness the knowledge and experience of recognized partner organizations to efficiently and effectively develop, share, and disseminate knowledge, skills, and expertise. Via its website and the regular production of resource materials containing REPSSI latest research findings as well as useful resources developed by partner organisations, knowledge and skills are widely disseminated.

• Create a healthy psychosocial support environment for all children by working with and supporting teachers and other organisations providing services to children.

Strategy 3: Work in partnership with existing organizations that interface with children and youth toenhance and promote the provision of psychosocial care and support.

• Develop internal skills and capacity that enable REPSSI to communicate with partners to extract, enhance, and share psychosocial care and support knowledge and skills.

• Provide widespread technical support throughout the region via a mobile psychosocial support task team.

• Share psychosocial support knowledge with partner organizations through productive and collaborative dialogue.

Strategy 4: Ensure quality psychosocial care and support service delivery while meeting the very urgentpsychosocial support demands of the region.

• Consolidate and harness internal skills and capacity to provide quality assurance both internally and externally.

REPSSI’s goal therefore, is to facilitate and increase the overlap between knowledge development, transfer, and scale-up. Primary elements to the REPSSI scale up strategy include:

• Psychosocial support model development and testing, working with organisations that havepsychosocial support expertise.

• The creation of partnerships, alliances, and networks – to facilitate psychosocial support model transfer and scale up.

• Training and mentorship - Regional Pool of Facilitators, the Youth Development Diploma and the New orphans and vulnerable children degree being developed in partnership with UNISA & UNICEF.

• Information creation and dissemination - Knowledge Net Centres;

• Advocacy, Community mobilisation for better care and support of children -Journey of Life - a community mobilisation tool; and

• Material and technical support for mainstreaming psychosocial suppor

THE TEARS OF A STREET CHILD

 

IN the eyes of many, the sight of a street child sends shivers of heartless, wicked, uncultured, dangerous, brutal and potentially-harmful beings.

They are viewed as petty thieves, resilient and rebellious children, who should be avoided at all costs.

Many billboards in the central business district read 'do not give alms to street children', giving society every reason to dissociate themselves from this marginalised group of individuals.

Street children are thought of as people who do not deserve a second chance or indeed the benefit of doubt in life.

They are seen as 'someone else's responsibility', and for many in society, they are seen as children who despite provisions by the Government to provide free primary education, they are not willing to get an education.

In fact, a lot of people in society can attest to the fact that they have at least once in their lifetime had a negative encounter with street children.

Members of the public have suffered vices such as violence, verbal abuse, pick-pocketing, and in extreme cases rape, and assault.

However, there have been many Government-driven interventions aimed at finding a long lasting solution to some of the challenges affecting street children, some of whom have since matured into street adults.

Whether or not, some of these interventions have had an impact, although, the bare fact is that, the matter of street children is still a major source of concern in various societies.

However, there are people in society who have a completely different perception of street children, and possible solutions to addressing the age-long challenges affecting street children and their impact on society.

The children are not criminals as most people like to believe. In fact, they themselves have in most cases been victims of negative vices such as sexual abuse.

If the cycle of problems affecting street children is not addressed, and broken, then society will end up with street children and youths they should fear.

There may be cases of street children involved in a lot of vices, while others have ended up on the streets because somehow, like in every society, life may have been very unkind to them due to no fault of their own.

Like the old adage says: 'do not judge me if you have not walked half the journey I have been through.'

It is, therefore, imperative that before exercising any judgment on some of the children who live on the streets, it is worth contemplating what a simple gesture such as love can do for them.

CHILD VUNERABILITY

VULNERABILITY
Vulnerability mean "a high probability of a negative outcome", or an expected welfare loss above a socially accepted norm, which results from risky/uncertain events, and the lack of appropriate risk management instruments. Vulnerability is shaped by risk and stress characteristics such as magnitude, frequency, duration, and scope, to which individuals, households and communities are exposed. This implies that vulnerability is a relative state - a multifaceted continuum between resilience and absolute helplessness.

THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF CHILD VULNERABILITY
Compared to adults, all children are vulnerable by nature, but some children are more critically vulnerable than others. Child vulnerability is a downward spiral where each shock leads to a new level of vulnerability, and each new level opens up for a host of new risks. In other words, the probability of a child experiencing a negative outcome rises with each shock. At the bottom of this spiral we find children who live outside of family care or in situations of severe family abuse and neglect. OVC interventions can be made at all levels to prevent (a further) increased vulnerability, or to mitigate the effect of likely shocks. The higher up in the spiral the intervention is made, the more cost-effective it is likely to be. OVC should preferably be assisted before they have reached the most critical stages of vulnerability, because interventions aimed to rescue and rehabilitate the most critically vulnerable children tend to be too expensive to be sustainable and moreover have low rates of success.

THE SCIENCE OF SELF CONFIDENCE

The Science of Self Confidence

(Six audio cassettes or CDs)
Learn how to develop unshakable self-confidence. Brian Tracy explains how to take full and systematic control
of your conscious mind. Learn keys of persuading others and techniques for dealing with difficult people. Plus,
learn how to become fearless in your work and personal life.

Session 1: The Foundation of Self-Confidence
What having greater self-confidence will do for you. Understanding, applying the Law of Cause and Effect.
Taking full and systematic control of your conscious mind. Deciding upon your values. Integrity. Self-control,
self-mastery and self-discipline. Boldness. Self-assertion. Inner trust.

Session 2: Purpose and Personal Power
The Laws of Indirect Effect…Attraction…Correspondence…Concentration…Substitution…and Emotion.
Clarity, conviction, commitment and consistency. The tragedy of comfort zones. Seeing yourself as a leader.
How setting goals can help lead you to greater self-confidence.
 
Session 3: Achieving Competence and Mastery
To achieve competence and mastery, start with self-analysis and self-awareness. Six successful methods to
analyze yourself. Simple tests to determine if your job is right for you. Finding your "true place" in life. Three
simple rules that will change your life.

Session 4: The Inner Game of Self-Confidence
The Law of Belief. Mental fitness. The power of suggestion. Three forms of suggestion. Accepting
responsibility for everything you think, say and do. Using positive self-talk. Serendipity. The verbal antidote to
fear of failure. Techniques for building self-confidence.

Session 5: Winning with Others
Putting the Law of Reciprocity to work on your behalf. Focusing your attention on the other person. Keys to
winning with other people. How to increase your popularity. The power of praise and recognition. Keys to good
listening.

Session 6: Succeeding in Personal Relationships
Your most intimate relationships are reflections of the kind of person that you are. As a living magnet, you can
attract the people and circumstances you need. Developing your personality. Meaningful, relevant selfdisclosure.
Understanding the differences
between the sexes.

 
Session 7: Getting the Things You Want
Deciding what you want and who can help you get it. Establishing trust and rapport. Helping others get what
they want. Conducting a creative job search. The Universal Hiring Principle. Keys to persuading others. Secrets
of skilled negotiators.

Session 8: Dealing with Difficult People
Overcoming the fear of confrontation. Suppression, repression and denial of feelings. The effects of destructive
criticism and conditional love. Where does the fear of success come from? Aggressiveness. Techniques for
dealing with difficult people.

Session 9: Capitalizing on Your Strengths
Determining your areas of excellence. Divine discontent. Knowing your weaknesses. Increasing your return on
energy. Finding your competitive advantage…and putting it to work. Exercises for building self-confidence.

Session 10: Health, Fitness and Self-Confidence
 
Creating new energy through the high-performance diet. Avoiding the three white poisons. Why diets don't
work - by themselves. The wonderful thing about exercise. More keys to health and self-confidence. The
"impressions" factor.

Session 11: Triumphing Over Adversity
The Reality Principle. Performing well as a team member, and during crises. Adversity builds character.
Responding to disappointments. Mental tools used by society's most effective people to cope with adversity.

Session 12: Self-Confidence in Action
Exploring opportunities…and being successful. Desire, decision, determination and discipline. Why every act
of self-confidence builds self-confidence. The five most important qualities for self-confidence and success.
Positive self-talk. Becoming a person of action.

BRENALD CHINYOWA

EMAIL : chinyowab@gmail.com

CELL : +263 777 897 586

WEBSITE : http://rayofhopef.wix.com/zimbabwe

THE SEVEN C’s OF SUCCESS

 
After having studied top achievers and peak performers over the past 25 years, I’ve
concluded that these unique men and women, have in most cases, mastered what I
call the Seven C’s of Success.
 
1.Clarity - Eighty percent of success comes from being clear on who you are,
what you believe in and what you want.
 
2. Competence - You can't climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are
excellent at what you do now.
 
3. Constraints - Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within.
Find out what is constraining in you or your company and deal with it.
 
4. Concentration - The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it
through until it’s done takes more character than anything else.
 
5. Creativity - Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to
be exercised like a muscle, if you don't use it you'll lose it.
 
6.Courage - Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to
do the things you know are right.
 
7. Continuous learning - Read, at the very least, one book a week on business
to keep you miles ahead of the competition. And just as you eat and bathe,
organize your time so you spend 30 minutes a day exploring e-mail, sending
messages, going through web sites, because like exercise, it's the only way
you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you'll lose your
edge.
 
By BRENALD CHINYOWA

EMAIL : chinyowab@gmail.com

SKYPE : brenald1

MOBILE : +263 777 897 586

THE SECRET TO SUCCESS

1. DESIRE 

It is not accidental that Hill begins with desire. Success always begins
with desire. 
Most people want to be successful. Wanting success is a waste of time.
Worse, it just produces frustration. Only a burning, all-consuming, fervent
and passionate desire will produce the exceptional results that make up
true success. 
Wanting is best understood by its second meaning in the dictionary: lack.
To want for something is to lack something and so long as you merely
want success, you will lack success. Wanting is mere wishful thinking. 
Desire, on the other hand, is an extremely potent force. It is a supreme
motivator. It is a metaphysical principle of creation. 
Desire is an energetic emanation of the human spirit that enacts the law
of attraction. Desire is the metaphysical equivalent of gravity. Desire
draws to you the thing desired, or the elements that will constitute the
thing desired. Desire is the fuel that ignites the fire that transmutes
thoughts into things. 
The sad truth about most people who claim to want success is that they
actually do not desire success. What they desire is comfort and security.
The path to real success often demands that you give up comfort and
security in order to gain rewards greater than mere creature comforts
and minor financial security. 
For years, I wanted to be a millionaire. I wanted and wanted to no avail.
It was not until, one day, in my frustration and anger, I graduated from
wanting to truly desiring success, and, as a result, I was almost magically
catapulted into millionaire status. 
It was the burning passion of fervent desire that pushed me out of my
comfort zone of mediocrity and security and empowered me to achieve
real success. It was my desire that enabled me to get past the fear of
failure and get past the frustrations of obstacles to achieve the success I
had wanted for so many years. 
You must have or develop a burning passion for success. Without it, you
are highly unlikely to achieve it. Get passionate or stay home. 
This is critical…your desire must be specific. It must be attached to a
clear and specific ideal, a clear and consistent thought picture of what
success means to you.