Trained as a sociologist in grad school, I have to admit that I get giddy about things like survey and interviews. I like having information at my fingertips and I've always wanted to know more about the community that PEPY has been working with in Chanleas Dai. When I envisioned our team doing this, it was always something along the lines of my academic training......a village-based survey, perhaps some interviews with randomly selected families....focus groups with village chiefs etc. Mostly it was OUR team collecting information, and then using that information to make conclusions and evaluate problems in the community.
When we hired our Cambodian Country Manager Aline in September, she proposed a version of assessment that was drastically different: a Participatory Rural Appraisal. Unlike typical research methods which extract information, the PRA method attempts to involve community members more directly in their own appraisal of their livelihoods. Instead of asking questions, the PRA encourages villagers to use creative tools to ask their own questions, discuss their community problems, and come up with problem rankings describing the biggest issues in their village. It sounds so abstract in writing, and though I was excited about as much community engagement as possible, I have to admit that I wasn't quite sure how or if it would work out.
By Daniela Papi
Here you are, checking out our new site, so there's no need for me to tell you.... we've launched our new site! Exciting! Many many thanks to Adam Little for designing and developing this site and for putting up with our changes and barrage of ideas. This has been a multi-month process and we are so happy to get this new site out to y'all!
This new site comes at a time of many changes for PEPY. With Meas Aline at the helm of our non-profit program development, we are going down new paths and really paving the way for future PEPY programs to be more sustainable and relevant for the communities with whom we are working. You will read more about Aline's work with the Participatory Rural Assessment in the coming days. Maryann and I have been up at the school for the week and have been blown away by the work she and Tolors have been doing.
This site is coming out just as we are delivering the XO "$100 Laptops" to the PEPY Ride School. This first week we have been dealing with software updates and technical problems, but even amidst this slight chaos, the students have been eager to learn and excited about their new laptops. Two nights ago, as I was working in the English classroom in the evening, students began trickling into the open classroom door one by one to see what I was doing. Eventually the sun had set and all the room was aglow with 30 kids, from age 4-16, playing on 20 XOs, and exploring the programs that appealed to them. They were using the music making program to compose their own tunes and taking turns making videos of themselves, all the while facinated by this new learning tool.