UNIT 1 LEARNING AND WORKING

WITH THE COMMUNITY

Structure
Introduction
Learning about the community
Working with the community
1.3.1 Working with individuals
1.3.2 Working with community groups
1.3.3 Working w ;th other agencies
Identifying and solving problems
Evaluation of the action
Let Us Sum lJp
Glossary
Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

1.1
- INTRODUCTION
Community education needs an understanding about the community as a prerequisite.
Therefore, certain basics to deal with the community are discussed here for the benefit
of community educators. Initially it is neckssary for community workers to learn about
what the community consists of? This unit provides a knowledge about the community
and presents few guidelines as to how to develop good relationships with people in the
community and skills to work with them. Once these skills are obtained by the
community workers, the further task of analysing problems of the community and
developing a plan of action and evaluating the same is possible and easy. For these
tasks of the community worker, important information is detailed. Thus, this Unit
provides enough background to the community workers for making their tasks easier in
the field.

Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to:
discuss how to develop good relations with people in the community
explain how to help people in the community organize themselves in order to solve
problems
describe how to cooperate with other community workers in the community
identify sources of information about the community, and
discuss how to help the community recognize chief nutrition and health problems
and causative factors responsible
 - -

Community Nutrition and

Health Sqfltua 1.2 LEARNING ABOUT THE COMMUNITY

What is Community?
A community has been referred as stable, small, autonomous and self-contained unit
such as colonies of pioneer settlers, primitive tribes, villages and immigrant areas..The
same term has been used to refer large complex, interdependent urban areas like Colaba
in Bombay, Safdarjung Enclave in Delhi and Park Circus in Calcutta. We also find
towns called communities and also cities as communities. Sometimes wide, diverse,
small,temporary units like gypsy camps are also referred to as communities on wheels.
Every city has its share of exclusive residential areas such as suburbs, ghettos, slums etc.
These Clusters are called "Natural areas" as they have been the result of social forces
and natural groupings rather than designed. Therefore, the terms community and natural
areas are used interchangeably.
In general, whatever, may be the size of complexity of a community studied, it has
certain characteristics. These include occupation of a territorial area, common interests,
common pattern of social and economic relations, common bond of solidarity, network
of social institutions and some degree of group control.
Most communities have many problems which members do not believe can be solved
by them. For examplle, community.members often see infectious diseases, sickly children
and a poor water supply as problems which they cannot solve. Before problems can be
solved, people in the community must first understand all the factors involved. This will
help them to decide what are the best actions to take to solve their problems.
To help community members recognize, understand and deal with problems, you should
work with them in the following situations:
1) Identify food and nutrition problems in the community.
2) Decide on the chief problem.
3) Suggest causes for the problem.
4) Decide on what changes are needed to solve the problem.
5) Discuss some solutions to the problem.
6 ) Decide on one solution.
7) Develop a plan of action.
8) Carry out the plan.
9) Evaluate what has been done.
Use this step-by-step approach to deal with each problem that you find.
Remember, the community must take part in all these steps.
In order to achieve this, there is a need for you to learn how to work with
individuals, groups and agencies in the community. The following discussion will
help you do this.

1.3 .WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY

It is not an easy task to work with the community unless you decide and make an
attempt to do so. This is because generally we have a tendency to move along with ohr
own group. There will be a block when we are asked to deal with other communities.
Hence there is a need to learn to work with different communities. To acquire the skill
of working with the community some hints are given below.

1.3.1 Working with individuals

Some people do not belong to any special group in the community, but can be reached
at places where they usually go to work, for example, washing by the riverside. This can
be used as a way of exchanging information, finding out about coming events such as a
meeting or talking about problems. As you get to know your community better, you can
6 think of other ways of meeting people.
 Learnlng and Worklng
wlth the Community

1.3.2 Working with community groups

One of the ways in which you can help people identify and solve their problems is by
helping them organize themselves into groups and work together to accomplish a
common goal. Can you think of some of the benefits of working with groups? If you
can put them down in the place provided:

For your reference some benefits of working with groups are:

It encourages cooperation with other people and enables them to accomplish
things which they would not be able to do alone.
It provides contact with other people so that members can increase their
knowledge and experience.
It encourages participation and involvement in solving common problems.
It develops the skills and talents of individual members.
Organizing community members into groups works best when there are problems which
affect most people, for example, no proper drinking water source, no school, no
sufficient food etc. Forming community groups helps community membep agree on
common problems and recognize that they can solve those problems by themselves, with
external help as required.
You must meet at first with individuals, then with larger groups ofqeople. This will
help you to identify the right leadership for building community awareness and
responsibility for solving problems. This process of building leadership starts by asking
such simple questions like "why do people get sick? "What can be done about it"?
This is a slow process but it helps community members to begin to see that their
problems can be solved by them. It also helps the right kind of leadership to emerge.
Community Nutrltlon and Once leadership is created, the person takes responsibility for talking to more and more
IIdtb status people about problems and every day experiences. Once a group is formed it should
starc thinking about some sort of organization, a system of conducting meetings and
plans for carrying out activities. The group should be quite clear as to why it came
together in the first place. It must then develop and cany out plans to solve the
community problems which brought it together.
Several groups like Youth Club. Mahila Mandal. may already be present in the
community. They can help you identify local problems. They can also be better
organized by you to carry out tasks which are related to improving the food and
nutrition situation. Members of these groups already have a style of working together
and knowing their community and its problems. You should try to get nutrition and
health information to these groups at their meetings and try to get them interested and
eager to help. You should also identify the people who are most credible and others will
tend to follow. These are the people most likely to assume leadership in helping to make
community members more aware of problems and consider what they can do to solve
them. Let them guide you. then combine your ideas with theirs to reach effective
solutions. Now the next question that arises is how to keep groups together?
All groups come together br a special reason. Members of a group should agree on the
reason why the group was formed, and what is to be achieved? They should also feel
closely involved in the activities which the group plans to carryout and they have
something to contribute. For groups to work well they need to develop clear plans of
action. How to develop a plan of action for a group? Some hints are provided here for
your benefit:
- decide and write down what is to be accomplished
- ask group members what are their interests and what resources they can
contribute to the activity
- make a list of a31 the things which need to be done (tasks)
- write down the tasks in the order in which they should be carried out (the
priority). the length of time each will take and their relative importance
- decide what is needed for the various tasks (e.g., time. money. skills. etc.)
- decide the labour for carrying OUI tasks among group members, assigning
jobs to people in line with their abilities and preferences
- set deadlines (the dates by which tasks should be completed), and
- evaluate the activities.

1.3.3 Working with other agencies

There are many causes to nutrition and health problems existing in the community.
Generally these problems cannot be solved by any one agency working alone. Different
agencies function in a community. These are health workers, agricultural extension
workers. community development workers, school teachers etc. These community
workers need to work together in a coatdinate and cooperative manner.
Reasons for working with other agencies
Food and nutrition &c&v~ty in the community is often carried by each agency
independently and, as a cs-csult,the achievements are discouraging. If community workers
cooperate with colleagues who are running other programmes, they will be able to:
- combine resources
- combine ideas
- save on expenses
-- be- a member of a group with common goals
- share information about the community and on plans and projects
- plan together to avoid conflict, and
- discuss problems and opportunities with others doing similar jobs.
 The following situation illuslrates what happens when there is no communication and Learning and Working
cooperation between the community workers. wlth the Community

- A community development worker starts a campaign to persuade mothers to burn or

buny all their household waste to improve hygiene. At the same time, the
agricultural extension worker advises farmers to keep their household waste to make
compost for their fields.
A coordinate group of community workers can be far more effective than workers on
their own. Workers can share transportation on field visits, record information in a way
that others can use and work towards common goals decided upon between the local
community and themselves.
In order to achieve benefits, one should make a deliberate effort to work with other
! organizations, combining programmes wherever possible. This is called 'coordination'.
I The following situations illustrates what happens when coordination is lacking.
i
- A field worker successfully persuades all the mothers in a village to'give their'
children suffering from diarrhoea a nutritious diet. The children continue to suffer
from diarrhoea. Why? Because the local water supply remains polluted.
I The example show that the action was carried out in isolation. The group involved did
, not combine or integrate their approaches to the problem. This caused the people
concerned to become frustrated and confused. From the example, it is evident that
community groups which work well together can achieve more than each group working
b on its own.
There are several advantages in working closely with other community workers.
~uildingcommunication and co-operation with other agencies working in the community
is a great asset. When people work together they gain the confidence of the local
community and they save scarce resources by combining their efforts. They get support
and encouragement from their colleagues and share problems with them. This makes
community work less of a lonely task.

Check Your Progress Exercise 1

1) What is community? What are different types of communities? Give some examples
of communities?

2) What are the best actions to take to solve the problems?

3) Mention some of the places where community workers can reach the individuals in
a community.

4) List five important benefits of working with groups.

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...........................................................................................................
5) Give five important reasons for working with other agencies in the community?
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4 IDENTIFYING AND SOLVING PROBLEMS

Identification and solving problems existing in the community is a crucial task of any
community worker. For this, it is necessary for the workers to identify the chief
problem and to list the causes of and possible solution to the problem. Then,
developing a plan of action and implementation of action is the next step in the
process. We will learn about these steps one by one in the following section.

A. Identification of nutrition and health problems

Initially there is a need to collect information for identifying problems in the
community. In order to get information on community problems, we will need to
know all about the community. You will want to know things like what people do for
a living, the conditions under which they live, their backgrounds, conhems, interests,
customs and traditions, way of life, what they think is rewarding or good in life, what
their position is in the community; how much they know about what you want to talk
about, what they think of the work you are doing and what they think of you. You
also need to know what are the common diseases in the community and all the factors
which cause food, nutrition and health problems to occur.
The basic information you have collected will help in identifying the most important
nutrilion and health problems as seen by the community, e.g., malnutrition, diarrhoea
and the factors involved. After collecting the information, you should meet with the
people and discuss the problem. Meetings and discussions with individuals or groups
are useful for helping people look closely at lhe causes which lead to these problems.
People need to understand why problems do or do not occur so that they will be able
to choose the bcst actions to rake to solvc their problems. People in the community,
othcr community workers and health workers are examples of some of these people
wilh whom you will discuss the problems.
The aim of the discussions is to learn as much as possible about the problems such as:
- how they are regarded by each group?
- the number of people who have these problems
- the bchaviour that causes the problcms
- possible reasons for this behaviour
- other causes of the problems
- what solutions are possible?
- what are the best solutions?
- how these solutions will fit into people's lives?
- the advantages and disadvantages of each solution etc.
 B. ind din^ the cause to the problem Learnlng and Worklng
with the Community
Once the problem is identified the n xt step is to find the causes to the problem. There
are many reasons why these problems occur and it is essential to try and identify the
most important causes. Some of these may be:
- not enough food for everyone, especially for young children
- too little money to buy food

- not enough education

1t - bad roads and no (ransportation to take crops to the market
! - not enough clean, safe water
t - infections and diseases in children
, - poor families with too many children
i Nutritional problems are caused also by bad practices such as:
I - poor handling and storage of food
-- unsanitary disposal of rubbish and human waste
- improper weaning practices
You need to work with the community in fmding out possible causes for the problems
as well as possible reasons for the undesirable practices which cause problems. After
finding out the cause for the problem, develop strategies to solve them.
C. Developing a Plan of Action
Since problems often have several causes, the community must decide on different
actions to take in solving them. Deciding on which actions to take will depend on the
kind of problem, its causes and the reasons behind the behaviours which cause it. A
plan for taking action will involve:
- understanding and stating clearly what you want to achieve
- deciding on the activities and materials you will need
- identifying the people you will need
- giving jobs or tasks to people
- putting the whole plan into a time-frame which shows when the activities
will start and end.

1.5 EVALUATION OF THE ACTION

If at the beginning of a plan or activity you have a clear idea of what you want,
evaluation will help us find out if we have succeeded. For example, if we wmted to .&e
fewer children becoming malnourishec' we need to know at the beginning what are the
bad practices which help malnutrition occur, also other causes. The plan of action to
be followed will be aimed at changing these practices and correcting the other causes.
Evaluating the results will show whether the bad practices which cause malnutrition are
fewer and if there are more of the right behaviours which keep people healthy.
Remember, it may take sometime for the results of an activity to show, depending on
the kind of health or nutrition problem which is being dealt with.
Evaluation is also important to find out:
- Why did they go well?
- What new behaviours have been learnt?
- How carrjhey use these behaviours to solve other problems?
These answers will help us and the community evaluate and learn from a plan or
activity. If the results were not what we expected, we should try to find why? Questions
like these will help:
~ o m m u n ~ ~utrltlon
ty sad - Were there any problems in carrying out the activity?
H d t b Ststw
- Did each person involved know what to do?
- Could each person do what he had p do?
- Did each person do what he had to do?
i

- How did he do it?

- Were the right kinds of activities chosen?
Answering these questions will help you and the community plan better activities and

-
nrommmes for the future.
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--
Check Your Progress Exercise 2
1) What are five important benefits that yo2 may experience if you discuss about the
problems with the community?

2) What are some of the important causes for nutrition and health problems?

...........................................................................................................

3) What does a plan of action involve?

4) Evaluation is important, why?

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1.6 LET US SUM UP

For community education, it is very essential to learn about the community, in terns of
their activities, interests, c u s m s , etc. In order to build community awareness and
responsibility for solving problems, there is a need to learn to work with individuals,
groups and with agencies in the community. Working with groups help to share
information on activities, combine resources, ideas and expenses and share
responsibilities and duties within the group in a cooperative manner. Working with
groups also help in identifying chief nutrition and health problems and the factors which
cause them. Considering possible sources of information on problems and identifying the
possible solutions to the problem, develop a plan of action and carry aut activities which
will help solve the problems. The results need to be evaluated by identifying the strong
,and weak points of the activities implemented. This evaluation will help to planbbetter
activities and programmes for the future.
 Learning and Working
1.7 GLOSSARY with the Community

Awareness : ' Having knowledge

Community : Group of people living in a self-contained unit
Concept : A general idea
Credible : ' Capable of being believed,
Diagnosis : The decision reached from an examination
Envisage : Visualize
Evaluation : Checking how well the different activities which are part of
the plan, are going
Health : State of complete physical, mental, social well-being
Intervention : To come between as in action
Malnutrition : A disease caused when a person does not eat right kinds of
food in right quantities for a long period
Nutritional status : Is the condition of health of the individual as influence by the
utilization of the nutrients
Persuade : Convince
Solidarity : Union arising from common responsibilities and interests, as
between members of a group

1.8 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

EXERCISES

Check. Your Progress Exercise 1

1) A community has been referred as stable, small, autonomous and self-contained
unit such as colonies of pioneer settlers, primitive tribes, villages and immigrant
areas.
Types of communities--Towns, $ties, wide, diverse, small temporary units like
gypsy camps (are also called communities on wheels)., Colaba in Bombay,
Safdarjung Enclave in Delhi and Park Circus in Calcutta.
2) a) Identify food and nutrition problems in the community
b) Decide on the chief problem
c) Suggest causes for the problem
e) Discuss some solutions to the problem
f ) Decide on one solution
g) Develop a plan of action.
h) Carry out the plan .
i) Evaluate what has been done
3) a) Houses
b) Local clinics
c) Panchayat office
d) Shops or market
e) Fields
f) While washing clothes by the river side
g) Any other work place.
 Community NutrItIon and 4) a) It encourages cooperation with other people
H d t b Statw - -.
b) It enables them to accomplish things which they would not bc ableto do alone.
c) It provides contact with other people so that members can increase their
knowledge and experience.
d) It encourages participation and involvement in solving common problems.
e) It develops the skills and talents of individual members.
5) a) To combine resources.
b) To combine ideas.
c) To save on expenses
d) To be a member of a group with common goals.
e) To share information about the community and on plans and projects.

Check Your Progress Exercise 2

1) If we discuss about the problem with the community, it will help us ro know,
a) f i e number of people who have these problems.
b) The behaviour that causes the problems.
c) Possible reasons for this behaviour.
d) Other causes of the problems.
e) What solutions are possible?
2) Any three of the following:
a) Not enough food for every one but especially for young children.
b) Too little money to buy food
I c) NO jobs
d) Not enough education.
e) Bad roads and no transportation to take crops to the market.
f ) Not enough clean, safe water,
g) Infections and diseases in children.
h) Poor families with too many children.
Often nuaitional problems are causes also by bad practices such as;
i) Poor handling and storage of food.
j) Insanitary disposal of rubbish and human waste.
k) Improper weaning practices.
3) A plan of action involves.
a) Understanding and stating clearly what you want to achieve.
b) Deciding on the activities and materials you will need.
c) Identifying the people you will need.
d) Giving jobs or tasks to people.
e) Putting the whole plan into a time-frame which shows when the activities will
start and end.
4) Evaluation is important to find out:
a) What actions went well?
b) Why did they go well?
c) What new behaviours have been learnt?
d) How can they use these behaviours to solve other problems.