PAR Facilitators

Within our localization strategy, Participatory Action Research (PAR) is our primary strategy to mobilize and empower the poorest of the poor.

To facilitate this approach, a group of volunteers are selected from the most engaged and active animators. They participate in a four-day PAR Foundation Course, facilitated jointly by members of The Hunger Project’s staff and volunteer facilitators. These PAR animators learn how to analyze their own social reality and facilitate the same process within their communities among those living in the most extreme poverty. The goal is  to identify and solve problems through their own actions and form a Gono Gobeshona Shomity (GGS), or “self-help group,” at the local level.

The members of these  groups undergo a process of reflection, coming together to identify their social, political and economic obstacles, and work together to develop solutions through their GGS. Activities include starting savings and income-generating activities, and tackling social issues such as improved education or clubs for healthier lifestyles. The PAR process is designed to develop leadership and dignity, stimulate social responsibility, and empower the poorest of the poor.

PAR Facilitator Training

Purpose of the activity

  • To motivate a team of leading/advanced Animators, who will work as the facilitators of Participatory Action Research in their own wards, villages and localities
  • To spread the Research in every ward, village and localities of the union
  • To take the initiative to develop a hunger and poverty free union 

Facilitation: what type of person or team is required to facilitate the activity? 

  • Area Coordinator and Union Coordinator of the specific area, and volunteer core facilitator of that union
  • Staff from The Hunger Project’s PAR central unit
  • Additional support can be provided by the respective Regional Coordinator, if needed

          **A team of 23 is enough to facilitate the workshop.

Preparation: what should be done before the activity?

Making a list of participants from the Animators, youth and advanced social leaders and sending them invitation letters

Fixing a date, time and place

Logistics arrangement

Deciding who shall facilitate the workshop

Participants: who should participate? How many in each session?

  • Active and leading Animators
  • Villagers who are active volunteers in social development works
  • People who will not suddenly leave their respective unions or areas 

           **27-30 participants should be present in each session (03 from each of the 09 wards of the union, plus 03 youths). Half of the participants must be women.

Duration: how long does it take?

  • It is a 03 daylong, union based, nonresidential workshop.

Financial cost items

  • Materials (Banner, white board, marker, flip chart, brown paper, signature pen, folder, normal pen, pad)
  • Lunch and two snacks per day
  • Transportation allowance for the participants and facilitators
  • Venue rent, projector rent (if not included in the venue rent)
  • Communication cost

What are the “transformative” aspects of this activity? It shifts the mindset of participants from what to what?

  • Discovering their own strength and creativity
  • Identifying the reason behind their poverty and realize the need to form organizations to solve their problems
  • Realizing that poor people are not problems, they are actually the solutions to the problems; they are the assets
  • Developing a cando attitude and feel that they are capable of researching, identifying problems and planning actions

Upon participation in this meeting, the mindset of the participants shifts

  • From pessimistic to optimistic
  • From scattered to united (to form an organization) to create a better future

What are the content/factual learning objectives of the activity?

  • How to organize PAR workshops and sessions effectively at ward, village and community level
  • How to identify the poorest of the poor in their own ward, village and locality, and develop them as the Barefoot Researchers
  • How to collaborate with the other facilitators to start the PAR Movement at union level
  • How to inspire the poor communities that have fallen behind to form organizations
  • How to act as motivators in the social and mass initiatives of the Barefoot Researchers
  • How to help the Barefoot Researchers and their organizations to avail information regarding the Union Parishad and other government & nongovernment service organizations

Flow: from “welcome” to “thank you” what are the spaces the participants are taken through? If there are “power questions” that prompt each step, what are they?

  • Welcome speech, national anthem, introduction
  • Examine preconceptions
  • Explanation of the purpose and objective of the workshop
  • Creation of a suitable environment
  • Research and Participatory Action Research (Circle of PAR and its features, Game of sight)
  • Topics of the Research (Reflection game/Others are my mirror)
  • Poverty and deprivation (What? Why?)
  • Thematic Participatory Action Research 
  • Ways to eradicate poverty
  • Organization and its importance (What and why, past experience of forming organizations)
  • SEO (Self Emancipatory Organization): What, why, how to form, who will be members, who will be leaders of SEO
  • Action plan (Forming organization and doing the Barefoot Research)
  • Feelings sharing
  • Closing remarks

Followup: what should happen after the activity and how will we record it?

  • Followup meetings in every three months to review the progress of the implementation of planned actions
  • Discussion topics of the followup meetings: Sharing achievements, learning sharing, planning, reviewing the data of the organizations, discussing issues related to GGS (Gono Gobeshona Samity)
  • All the information and data of the followup meetings are well preserved through reporting forms.