My Lesson on a Local Response Experience

[Tricia Francis]

I never realize how I could have observe or experience Local Response until I read the course module, I know it was there but never pay much attention on what it really meant.

But a local response I came across was with some villagers and their way of communicating.

In this village they have a village board which they update everyday with any activity/meeting the village has, but during a SALT visit, they aired their concerns and one was that they thought the village board was not as effective as it should be, because some members would not show up to meetings claiming they were not aware, or forgetting and being late.

So with that in mind they took action in creating a more effective way that can work for them in communicating to the villagers. So together they decided to continue with the Village Board but also purchase a Megaphone for village use, so that when an activity or meeting arrives they would use the village bike to ride around the village and announce it as the day arrives.

And I think that action of local response took place because they knew what was not working for them and realize as a community everyone should be involve and they wanted each other to be involve in making decisions, interacting and working as a community. So letting everyone be aware of what was happening will encourage them to be involved in what is happening, and that will lead to the community working more closely together. And I thought that experience was an action of local response.

[Usa Duongsaa]

Hi Tricia,

Nice reading your blog :-) I think the village you described is similar to many villages I have come across whose concern is that the village board (or whatever the call it) doesn't quite work efficiently and who feel they have to do something about it. Glad that your actual visit to the community enabled you to understand and appreciate local response :-) Hope you will be able to continue to visit more communities and to share your insights with us here as well as in blended learning.

[Jean-Louis Lamboray]

... please click on another example, in Risya's blog.

[Jean-Louis Lamboray]

Tricia, you are not alone!
Me too, I took local responses for granted for years, even if I had created the Local Response Unit in UNAIDS.
And yes, the examples in hte blended learning course are very powerful, aren't they?
For another example, which I found striking: