Community Accompaniment: July 52008:

As the team continue to engage with young people in the community, they are becoming more confident in YCD, but also following channels to influence change. We have made it our focus to keep stimulating conversations and thoughts for progress in the community.

In the last month, we have learnt that, knowledge is important, but people have untapped knowledge too, its an existing strength. This community in particular, when children are born, they grow in the same homestead their grandparents grew up in; they go to old schools a few doorsteps from home; they go to similar markets, everything everyone knows is 'it'. A facilitation team working in such an environment, is challenged to explore strategies to continue stimulating thoughts beyond the 'box'. There are other ways to survive beyond selling fish or making baskets and people know them. Concerns on illiteracy's, early marriages or trafficking, answers on how to solve these issues lie with the community.

An accompaniment of a community like this is important, decisions are made and implemented, the community needs to feel that they are accompanied as those changes take place. Women who have decided they will educate their children, or will start asking questions on vision/dreams, or ask girls before they are married off at an early age.

One of my friends has been married off early in the village, she doesn't like the marriage and has moved on to staying at her parents house; less than five days of marriage. We asked the community members, what are we learning from this situation where a girl wants to commit suicide. They said...' we didn't know this issues were this serious, we should have asked her what she thought first'. At this time, the girl is bound to a marriage that according to her doesn't exist. She cannot be married again according to the culture even as young as she is.

The role of a facilitation team; either, local, support, CFT (Command Facilitation team) or TFT (Territorial Facilitation team) is to continue with the practice of home visits, community conversations and reflections on how the community is shifting. A community needs to be accompanied to a point where they are stable. The accompaniment also is for the facilitation team, we learn everyday in homes, we experience new changes, we encounter fresh Grace and we learn how to accompany and learn better.