Visiting a community meeting in Rawalpindi
Concern blog Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Concern's Rebecca Moynihan visited Pakistan recently. As a guest contributor to the editor's blog, she writes about her experiences visiting a community meeting in Rawalpindi.
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After an hour of a white-knuckle car journey, teetering on the edge of vertical drops as our driver skilfully navigated many twists and turns of rocky mountain trails, I arrive at a community hall with breathtaking views of the mountainous region of rural Punjab, Pakistan. Car journeys like this are not something that I do for fun. However, I was there to observe the monthly meeting of the Dhirkot Sattian Union Council Forum, which Concern facilitates.
Working with local communities
This forum is part of Concern’s wider community development programme in the area. Believing that local communities know how best to solve the problems they face, Concern is engaging with local organisations, helping with training, educating and building the technical skills of local people. In the rural Rawalpindi district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Concern is working with five of these groups.
Monthly meetings
Members of the forum travel on foot through rough mountainous terrain for up to two hours to attend the monthly meetings. As they trickle into the hall they greet each other with hugs and handshakes, having a quick catch up before the meeting starts. Led by an elderly member of the forum, the men offer prayers before the meeting. After prayers are finished the female members of the forum join in. Proceedings then take the form of community meetings all over the world, with the chairman welcoming the members and the secretary of the forum reading the minutes of the previous meeting. I find it hard to keep up with what is being discussed through my interpreter but the familiarity of the whole process is heartening.
After I was introduced by the President of the forum, the members tell me about the work that Concern is doing with them. They say Concern has been fantastic in the support they have provided. They also tell me how proud they are of the fact that they are all equally responsible for the decisions taken, and that it is an empowering structure. The forum recently identified the need for the women of the community to develop skills, and made a proposal to Concern to co-fund a tailoring school for girls in the community. Click here to read about this tailoring school. Concern has also been working with the forum so that they can successfully negotiate with the government to provide better community facilities.
