Community/Public dialogue

Community and public dialogue or education projects

Community education projects are appropriate where improved understanding or changes in attitudes and behaviour patterns across a community can lead to improvements in human and animal health and welfare. Community education, through school teaching, leaflets, newsletters, radio, television or whatever, works primarily by raising awareness about issues and encouraging public debate. Many projects come to realize the usefulness of including some community education activities, even though it can be difficult both to do and to evaluate. Draft donkey health and welfare projects in Ethiopia have circulated books around many of the primary schools in the country which illustrate in story form the ways that community-identified ‘good donkey owners’ look after their animals. Animal birth control projects in India have learnt that involving and informing communities increases the effectiveness and acceptability of their work.

Some sort of dialogue with a community is necessary if community education is to be successful. This is not easy because communities are complex, and community leaders often feel they speak for their communities even when there are distinct groups within the community who are clearly un- or under-represented. These processes require time and willingness to learn from the community, things which projects on tight funding schedules do not always have much of. Yet without them, ‘community dialogue’ can too easily become ‘community monologue’.