intersect

Sawubona!!

OMG!! my brain is just sooooooooo heavy with all info from the interesting & educational sessions I attended. But I will only blog about my 1st morning session – Fitting THEM in….

When I agreed to be a rapporteur I didn’t anticipate that it would be challenging. Besides, how difficult could it be to just report what I had heard? This was certainly not the case. At the outset it was fascinating to learn how partners were working with rights in their contexts and. It was clear that this was not easy especially when partners hit deadlock when they tried to address any violations. Following the sessions along the “beyond access” thematic area proved to be both informative, enlightening and in some instances challenging.

This was my first experience to be involved in such challenging duty. I am used to be in conferences as a participants having to articulates and be involved in discussions. In saying that for me, this was a new experience having to document or capture discussions let alone of such big event.

Seating and listing to all the different reports on what each organisation is doing and also capturing the discussions having to summarise all that to give report back was quit challenging yet good Learning. It was challenging because I was never had such opportunity.

Many organisations are guided by welfare approach while providing their services. During the session: 'when is it welfare and when is it development'; it was interesting that there were arguments that organisations need to move from welfare approach towards development approach. However, we learnt a lesson that there is nothing wrong with welfare approach. 

Rapparteur: Dumisani Malwane

Organisation: Maputaland Development and Information Centre (MDIC)

Coming to this event was quite a journey; I left home before sunrise on Sunday morning to get to the Port Elizabeth airport and finally arrived in Pietermaritzburg around midday. While in motion for all those hours, I kept wondering what it would be like to enter a space and process that was both strange and familiar. I have not worked with Oxfam before, but have been involved in the NGO sector for more years than I care to own up to.

The session on Welfare vs Development took the format of a Participatory Activity called Active listening, where one writes down the points that stand out during project presentations. Thereafter common thoughts are collected and grouped together.

I was particularly struck by the following cards in no particular order.