Training and Facilitiations
How we do facilitated meetings in a community?
When Bangladeshi and international guests visited the Ghoramara community a special village meeting was held on Friday 7th December. Several speeches were given by Mr Moklesur Rahman, the secretary of the Cooperative Society and one of the woman representatives, Mrs Ruby Akhter as well as Mr. Aziz from ICABangladesh, Mr Shankar Jadhav from ICA India, Mr Richard and Mrs Maria Maguire from ICA Australia and Ms Sarah Farina from ICA International in Canada. Offered the opportunity for part of the team to come back in the coming weeks the community chose the next Friday, December 14 for a full day community meeting.
The community meeting was carefully designed during the following week, a team of Bangla speakers recruited to lead the sessions and prepared during an intensive pedagogy and translation effort on the several hour evening boat ride to Chandpur. There were 5 Bangla facilitators (Aziz Rahman, Selina Akhter, Babul Miah, Naimul Hassan, Mehdi Hassan), ably supported by four Chandpur ICA contacts, Abul Khair, Manik Abdul Bari, Mizanur Rahman all of them were the scribes for the groups writing down the ideas that the community members mentioned in each of the workshops (cf. below and see the photos).
There were at least six parts to the whole meeting which was held from both 10-1 in the morning and 2-5 in the afternoon, with a break for prayer and lunch in the middle. About a total of hundred people participated, including quite a few children. We were especially pleased that many women participated and actually talked things over with the men, even facing each other on the benches after a woman facilitator, Selina Akhter, had everyone count to five and in that way put men and women who were sitting in their two groups naturally together in every group. In the afternoon session originally not that many men participated at first, because of jobs and other obligations we were told but later on several more men came and engaged in the process. At the end we even had a motorcycle visit from a reporter and a photographer from a national news agency who were eager to tell the story of this village getting itself together and creating its vision and actions for a new future of cooperation and unity.
Mr. Aziz welcomed everyone, explained the purpose and intended time design of the day (also presented in Bangla on large butcher papers on the School), introduced the Values of the Community and also those of the ICA that had been created for the occasion as an invitation for further dialogue and put in Bangla on big flipcharts.
He then walked the community through the village map and pointed to the Internet pictures from Google Earth that pointed to specifics of their village and its larger surroundings and indicated that we had put their full village name on the map on the Internet. Looking at these maps as well as the Social Process Triangle (with its major dynamics in Economic, Political and Cultural reality) he asked the community to name some of their assets.Another important step for supporting community awareness of possibility in the midst of their difficult situation was to create a community timeline from the beginnings of Ghoramara village till the present day.
Selina motivated the group very well to articulate what they were hoping to see come about in the next three to five years, building on all the achievements (and struggles) of the past years since they came to Ghoramara. It seemed very appropriate to have a woman lead a workshop early on and set an exciting example for all to see.
At the end of the Directions workshop the community was asked who was willing to work as a volunteer in one of the suggested six Directions for future action.
The following names were written down as a public witness to their commitment. They were also asked who would be willing to be a volunteer coordinator. It was proposed to have a man and a woman for each of the groups
At the end of the Directions workshop the community was asked who was willing to work as a volunteer in one of the suggested six Directions for future action.
Names of community volunteers were written down as a public witness to their commitment. They were also asked who would be willing to be a volunteer coordinator. It was proposed to have a man and a woman for each of the groups.