Participatory Workshops
A Facilitators' Guide
to Participatory Workshops with NGOs/CBOs Responding to
HIV/AIDS
Published
by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance
Introduction
This guide aims to support people who facilitate participatory
workshops with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
community-based organisations (CBOs) responding to HIV/AIDS
in developing countries. It is based on the practical experiences
of the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (the Alliance). The
Alliance is an international NGO that supports communities
in developing countries to prevent the spread of HIV, support
and care for those infected and ease the impact of HIV on
families and communities. Since its establishment in 1993,
the Alliance has provided both financial and technical support
to over 1,500 HIV/AIDS projects and has worked with NGOs
and CBOs from over 40 countries.
The Alliance recognises that all facilitators have their
own ideas and style and that this is a great strength. This
guide is not a manual with step-by-step instructions. Instead,
it builds on the principle that good facilitation is often
the result of careful preparation, so it includes ?ideas
boxes?, shown with a , key things to remember and pieces
of advice from experienced facilitators on how to respond
effectively and creatively to the needs of workshop participants.
Participatory approaches are widely used to encourage the
involvement of those directly affected. Learning through
drawing, role-plays and small group work allows people to
become actively involved in the process, without worrying
about their official status or their ability to communicate
formally. For HIV/AIDS work these techniques can be particularly
useful when exploring sensitive issues, for example people?s
sexual experiences, vulnerability and risk.
This guide does not attempt to explore how participatory
approaches can be applied to different aspects of HIV/AIDS
work. The Alliance documents this information in the form
of toolkits (training manuals) on specific subjects. These
toolkits include examples of participatory tools and activities
which can be used to help people discuss different issues.
Instead, this guide aims to be an ?ideas book? of shared
experiences to help facilitators prepare for participatory
workshops. This guide may also be useful to people who facilitate
meetings and planning activities using participatory techniques.
Participatory
Further information about toolkits and other publications
is available from the Alliance website: www.aidsalliance.org.
Source
This is an extract from A Facilitators' Guide to Participatory
Workshops with NGOs/CBOs Responding to HIV/AIDS, published
by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in November 2001.
To download the whole document, complete with graphics,
in pdf format (which requires Adobe Acrobat software to
read it) follow this
link (file size 1.15mb)
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