Community Development
Our Community Development strategy is an inclusive and holistic one which recognises that communities are often trapped in a web of poverty, hence the need for addressing multiple issues in their multifaceted nature. FIOHTG works with rural, impoverished communities to devise village development projects (VDP) which are implemented in a main village and a cluster of surrounding communities. The VDP approach allows us to identify issues affecting communities and selecting those ones where our expertise and mandate relates to using bottom-up and participatory methods. Prior to the start of any projects in these communities a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is conducted. PRA is a planning tool that helps identify the development priority areas that are compiled into a Community Action Plan (CAP).
You will find us in the North Bank Region, Lower River Region, Central River Region, Upper River Region. Well that is not all. We are aware of urban poverty and deprivations. That is why with partners, we have occasionally intervened in the West Coast Region too. And our organisation will be intervening in Banjul, KM and West Coast Region mainly to promote literacy and child wellbeing.
FIOHTG’s interventions in the VDPs are within the thematic areas of governance and organisational development (Community Based Organisation (CBO) management, project proposal training, democracy), gender and equality (Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), early marriages, gender workloads), youth empowerment, health (HIV/aids, malaria, nutrition and hygiene), environment (waste management, pit latrine, tree planting), agriculture and food security (gardening, cereal banking), entrepreneurship training and civic education.
Target groups in the VDPs are Community Based Organisations (CBOs), such as Village Development Committees (VDCs) including representatives from CBOs and traditional community leaders, parent teacher association (PTA) including parents of children going to school from a cluster of villages. PTAs is a major stakeholder in the education sector and their main interest area is to participate in the management of the community school in order to improve the learning conditions of the children. Other targeted CBOs are Mother’s clubs, Environmental clubs, Gender committees etc.