Building Blocks in Practice

This publication focuses on different issues connected with improving the community care and support provided to orphans and other vulnerable children. It is designed for facilitators working with non-governmental organisations and community or faith-based organisations interested in learning about Participatory Learning in Action (PLA).

The book defines PLA as an ongoing process that works to tackle concerns in a community and is based on the idea that community members are the best ‘experts’ about their own situations. PLA can be used in rural, peri-urban and urban sites and has been used in a variety of sectors including the agricultural, environmental, natural resource, health, gender and education sectors.

The book uses the framework of PLA to explore seven topics that are presented in a previous publication by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, titled “Building Blocks: Africa-wide briefing notes” (2003).

The seven topics are:

• economic strengthening
• educational support
• health and nutrition
• older carers
• psychosocial support
• social inclusion

The manual seeks to explore these topics with respect to child care and support by attempting to answer the following questions:

• What do we want for the children in our community and what do they need?
• What is the current situation of the children in our community and how are their needs being met at present?
• What are the most important barriers to improving the situation of children in our community and can these be prioritised?
• What resources for the support of vulnerable children exist in the community (human, material, policy, etc)?
• What action can we take and how can we improve what we are doing already?

"A five-day meeting was held in Kenya to facilitate the development of the tools in English, French and Portuguese. KANCO (Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium) provided local and logistical support for the meeting. Participants from Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Kenya, with experience of participatory community development and/or working with children, attended this meeting and designed the tools through a participatory process during which ideas were exchanged and discussed. The tools were tested during the meeting and improvements incorporated."