Session 11. Nature of Volunteerism: Expectations Beyond Training[edit | edit source]
- Total time
- 2 hours
- Objectives
- To discuss and clarify expectations regarding future Peace Corps service
- To plan, carry out and evaluate a training activity using a format for training design
Materials:
- Newsprint and felt-tip pens
- Trainer Notes
The basic format for this session is the same as the format for Phase I: Session 5, "Development of Facilitation Skills Criteria." You should review Session 5 before beginning this one.
Step 1 (5 minutes)
Begin by explaining the session objectives and reviewing the procedures. Encourage questions and discussion. Trainer Notes
Explain that the procedures for this session are essentially the same as the procedures for the session on the development of criteria for facilitation skills. As in the previous session, participants will be involved in two processes simultaneously. That is, they will be planning, carrying out and evaluating a training activity while discussing and clarifying some of their expectations regarding future Peace Corps service.
Step 2 (10 minutes)
Post the training design format and explain how it will be used in this session.
Trainer Notes
Post the following training design format:
- Identify and agree upon objectives.
- Identify available resources.
- Design an activity/ies to meet the objectives.
- Evaluate the success of meeting the objectives.
Explain that the remaining steps in this session will consist of using this format to enable participants to discuss and clarify some of their expectations regarding future Peace Corps service.
Step 3. (10 minutes)
Assist the group in identifying and agreeing upon some specific objectives which focus on the general goal of discussing expectations regarding future Peace Corps service. List these objectives on newsprint.
Step 4. (10 minutes)
Help participants identify any resources which may be available. Trainer Notes
Some resources might include: returned Peace Corps Volunteers, current volunteers, written statements by current or exvolunteers, films or books about Peace Corps service, etc.
Step 5. (15 minutes)
Have participants design an activity/ies which meets their objectives and utilizes the available resources. Trainer Notes
- Activities which you can suggest include: a panel discussion with current or returned volunteers, a brainstorm and discussion of expectations, small group discussions, etc.
- Suggest that the procedures for the activity be outlined, that time limits be set and that a timekeeper, recorder, observer and facilitator be chosen.
Step 6. (60 minutes)
Have participants carry out the activity according to their design.
Step 7. (10 minutes)
Evaluate the success of meeting the objectives of the activity. Trainer Notes
Encourage discussion by asking the following questions:
- Was the activity well designed? If so, how? If not, how could it have been improved?
- In carrying out the activity, were the procedures followed?
- What were some things that the facilitator did to help the process? What did he/she do that hindered?
Session 12. Food Issues[edit | edit source]
Total time: 2 hours Objectives: * To compare and contrast the typical diet of the United States with that of diets in developing countries
- To define and discuss cash cropping and subsistence farming
- To identify and discuss a "food first" approach
Resources: * Werner and Bower, Helping Health Workers Learn
- Gussow, The Feeding Web, pp. 122-125, 163-166, 168
- Bullfrog Films, "Toast"
- Institute for Food & Development Policy, "Food First," a sound slide show
Materials: Newsprint and felt-tip pens, chalkboard/chalk, film projector and tape recorder
Procedures: Trainer Notes
- Have the participants read the listed resources prior to the session. If copying is not possible, place the resources on reserve and have a scheduled check-out system so that participants can review the materials.
- If they are not available, the film (Toast) and slide show ("Food First") mentioned in Steps 4 and 6 can be substituted with analysis of related reading.
Step 1. (5 minutes)
Present the session objectives and outline the activities.
Step 2. (15 minutes)
Have the participants brainstorm a list of qualities and meanings for the word "food." Trainer Notes
Write their responses on posted newsprint (e.g., "Food" is , . nutrient, commodity, healing, sharing, sacred, festive, weapon, power, symbolic, etc.)
Step 3. (15 minutes)
Assist the participants in generating and comparing lists of foods that could be considered "typical" in the United States and "typical" in developing countries. Trainer Notes
Post the two lists on newsprint and discuss significant similarities and differences.
Have the participants identify and discuss those foods typical to the United States that are healthful and nutritious and those that are not.
Stimulate discussion by asking:
- How has the typical United States diet changed over the last two generations? Why has it changed?
- Has the typical diet of developing countries changed? Why? Why not?
Step 4. (20 minutes)
Show and discuss the film, "Toast."
Step 5. (15 minutes)
Have the participants define and compare "cash cropping" and "subsistence farming." Trainer Notes
Write the definitions on newsprint. You can focus the activity by using the following categories: purpose, goal, effects, energy use, sustainability, etc.
Refer participants to the lists of qualities and meanings from Step 2 and ask how they relate to the two approaches.
Step 6. (45 minutes)
Present and discuss the slide show, "Food First." Trainer Notes
The following questions will focus the discussion:
- What are the implications of food as commodity approach to health and well-being?
- How is a "food first" approach possible?
- What are some ways appropriate community technologies can further a food firs." approach?
Step 7. (5 minutes)
Conclude by reviewing the session objectives.
Session 13. The Role of The Volunteer in Development: Definition of Appropriate Technology[edit | edit source]
Total time: 2 hours Objective: To determine criteria for appropriate technologies in developing countries Resources: * de Moll, Lane and Coe, Stepping Stones: Aporopriate Technology and Beyond
Selections from the above publication:
Bender, "Changing Possibilities," pp. 9-10
Bender, "New Values," pp. 47-51
- Reddy, Technology, Development and the Environment: A Re-Appraisal, Criteria for the. Selection of Technology," pp. 217
Trainer Notes
Sufficient copies of the resource materials should be prepared for distribution during this session. Materials: Newsprint and felt-tip pens
Procedures:
Step 1. (5 minute)
Provide a brief introduction by reviewing the session objectives.
Step 2. (10 minutes)
Have participants write down their own individual definitions of "appropriate technology."
Step 3. (20 minutes)
Have participants form groups of up to 5 people and develop a list of the major criteria for appropriate technology in the United States.
Step 4. (45 minutes)
Distribute copies of "Changing Possibilities" and "New Values" and have the groups:
- Read these articles.
- Discuss how the definition of appropriate technology may differ in developing countries.
- Revise their criteria lists accordingly.
Step 5. (30 minutes)
Reconvene the groups and have a representative from each one present and discuss their lists. Trainer Notes
Stimulate discussion regarding the lists by calling attention to the following questions:
- Are the criteria for "appropriate technologies" in the United States significantly different from those in the developing world? If so, why? If not, why not?
- What are some potential political implications of development of "appropriate technologies in the United States and in the Third World?
Step 6. (10 minutes)
Conclude the session by distributing the "Criteria for the Selection of Technology" and explaining that its purpose is to provide a final perspective on possible criteria for "appropriate technology."
Explain that they should keep these lists for use as reference in designing their various appropriate technology devices throughout the program.
Session 14. Stove Promotion and Dissemination[edit | edit source]
Total time: 2 hours Objectives: * To identify and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various development approaches
- To discuss various approaches to stove promotion, dissemination and information-gathering
Resources: * Aprovecho Institute, Helping People in Poor Countries, pp. 35-77
- Attachment III-14, "Stove Introductions and Dissemination: Case Studies 1 and 2"
Materials: Newsprint and felt-tip pens, chalkboard/chalk
Procedures:
Step 1. (5 minutes)
State the session objectives and outline the activities.
Step 2. (10 minutes)
Distribute Attachment III-14 and have the participants read it.
Step 3. (1 hour)
Have the participants identify and discuss the advantages and limitations of the development approaches described in each case study. Trainer Notes
- On newsprint, record the advantages and disadvantages of each development approach as it is raised.
- Encourage any conclusions or observations from the participants.
- Point out that there is no clear, correct approach. There are advantages and disadvantages to all approaches.
- Stress the following guidelines:
Learn about the community.
Discover existing needs, resources, ideas and methods of problem-solving.
Use a participatory, dialogue approach in working with a community or other groups.
Step 6. (40 minutes)
Discuss various approaches to information- gathering, stove promotion and dissemination Trainer Notes
Encourage discussion by asking:
- Assuming a need for cookstoves (or stove improvement) exists, how would you help a program get started?
- Then, how would you get people interested in cookstoves?
Some responses that may be generated are:
- Assess the needs and receptiveness of villagers.
- Establish rapport and trust in the community.
- Assess local resources, i.e., materials, skills (potters, mason).
- Examine other development programs in the community, analyzing the community's receptivity to change, amount of free time, etc.
Additional questions that could be raised during the discussion are:
- How would you promote the development of a national stove program?
- What would be a good location for a stove demonstration center. What would it do? What would be the drawbacks of a regional or local center?
Step 6. (5 minutes)
Have a participant summarize the key points of the discussion. Trainer Notes
Refer the participants to Helping People in Poor Countries, Chapters III and IV, for additional information, background and ideas.
STOVE INTRODUCTION AND DISSEMINATION: CASE STUDY 1
A volunteer health worker in a small town in the Sahel noticed many women suffering from the smoke in their kitchens. Remembering the wood stoves she had seen as a child in Europe, she developed a simple boxshaped stove with two potholes and a chimney. She had a local mason build the first stoves to her specifications, using adobe and mud mortar as material and making the cooking surface low, to suit local cooking habits.
She convinced some women friends in the town to try out the new stoves and they liked them. Not only did the stoves eliminate the smoke, they also saved firewood, allowed for more stable cooking and provided a raised surface to prepare food and place condiments. Soon the word spread: the stoves became popular in town and in the surrounding villages. The mason could hardly keep up with the orders for "a stove from Mademoiselle." The volunteer began to charge a fee to cover materials and construction costs. This became especially important after she and the mason decided to substitute fired bricks, mortar and concrete for the adobe, in order to make stronger and more durable stoves.
When the volunteer's term was up, one of the foreign aid agencies offered to expand her work into a nationwide stove promotion and dissemination program. She moved to the capital, where a stove demonstration center was built. Publicity campaigns were started in the newspaper and on radio. A local artist designed a stove T-shirt. Three or four standard models were on display at the stove center and could be ordered from a young woman hired to run the stoves for demonstration. A team of masons then came to the customer's home and built the model she had chosen in her kitchen, with instructions of how to properly cure the concrete stove top. Customers were mainly the wives of merchants and government officials. The stoves were becoming a sought-after status symbol in the capital city.
Plans for dissemination included creating more stove centers in other major towns throughout the country. Each would have its own mason team, trained in the capital, to build stoves locally. Radio promotion and word-of-mouth were counted on to create a demand for stoves.
Unfortunately, many of the stoves cracked badly in spite of the improved materials. Users were often impatient and did not let their concrete stoves cure long enough. If a stove broke down, it was sufficient to call the stove demonstration center, and a mason would be sent to repair the stove.
To date, the program is a success. There is a three-week waiting list to have a stove built, and orders are still coming in.
STOVE INTRODUCTION AND DISSEMINATION: CASE STUDY 2
In one Sahelian country, stove developers and local people designed a cookstove together. Local awareness of the firewood crisis was high, due to a Peace Corps energy survey which had recently been taken in the village. The villagers talked to the stove developers of their methods for conserving wood: windbreaks, lids on pots, putting out embers with sand, etc. Then they all talked of reducing heat loss during cooking, using the analogy of light lost from a lantern. Together they decided that putting walls around the fire would be a great improvement. There remained a question of materials: what should this wall be made out of? At this point, the stove developers showed the villagers some dried Lorena, and it was decided that this material might be suitable. Together with the local people, a stove was designed: the cookies pot would be surrounded by Lorena walls, and there would be an entrance on one side for feeding wood into the fire. A space all around the pot would allow the smoke to escape.
The result was a very simple chimneyless one-hole stove. This stove came to play a key role in the national stove dissemination program, especially for regions where one-pot cooking is common. The stated aim of the national program is to saturate the country with stoves by training as many different groups and individuals as possible in stove construction. Workshops are being held all over the country, either by an itinerant mason team or by volunteers stationed in out-lying areas. Local social service organizations are also involved in the training effort. It is hoped that trainees will either become trainers of others, or stove masons who will construct stoves for pay.
Here is an example of how this dissemination effort has worked: a Peace Corps Volunteer taught several women in his village how to build stoves. When he returned after a fortnight away from his village, he found that over a hundred stoves had been built in his absence. Half of them had been built by the women he had trained; the other half by women whom his trainees had taught. The stoves look like volcanoes, rather than model stoves, but they save wood and direct smoke away from the eyes towards the ceiling of the hut. Even though many of the firebox bridges crack and some cave in (partly due to construction flaws and partly due to wear-and-tear), cooks continue to use them and are enthusiastic about their stoves.
Session 15. Explaining Completed Cookstoves[edit | edit source]
Total time: 1 hour Objectives: * To present and explain completed cookstoves
- To discuss the design and construction process for each stove
- To assess the stove training to date
Materials: Completed cookstoves, discussion questions Trainer notes
This session requires some preparation. Clearly print the dis cussion questions on newsprint (see Trainer Notes, Step 2).
Procedures:
Step 1, (5 minutes)
Review the session objectives and outline the activities. Trainer notes
Explain that in this session, participants will form their original stove construction groups to present and explain the completed stoves to the other groups and discuss the construction and design process.
Step 2. (5 minutes)
Post and explain the discussion questions. Trainer Notes
Discussion questions include:
- What were the design criteria for the stove?
- What successes and difficulties were encountered during construction?
- Did the work group develop any tools or techniques?
- If so, were they applied successfully?
- What were the dynamics within the work group?
- Was there cooperation and were skills shared?
Explain that each group should respond to the above questions when explaining their stoves.
Step 3. (40 minutes)
Have each group present their stove and discuss how it was designed and constructed. Trainer Notes
Divide the time allotted for this step evenly among the groups.
Step 4. (10 minutes)
Reconvene the group and have them briefly assess the stove training to date, making suggestions for improvement. Trainer Notes
Consider the suggestions given by the group in planning and preparing for the remaining sessions, especially before building the second stove.
Session 16. Evaluating Cookstove Efficiency[edit | edit source]
Total time: 2 hours Objectives: * To design a methodology for testing wood consumption in a cookstove
- To evaluate wood consumption in a cookstove
- To identify and discuss rules and variables that influence the evaluation procedure
- To discuss the major points of a survey
Resources: * Evans and Boutette, Lorena Stoves, pp. 84-106
- Aprovecho Institute, Guidelines for Evaluating the Fuel Consumption of Improved Cookstoves
- Aprovecho Institute, Helping People in Poor Countries, pp. 86-95
- Dutt, Field Evaluation of Wood Stoves
- Friesan, "Papers on Cooking Simulation Tests"
Materials: Cookstoves, fuel, pots, water, thermometers, newsprint and felt-tip pens
Procedures:
Step 1. (5 minutes)
Review the session objectives and outline the activities. Trainer Notes
Mention the following points during the introduction:
- As PCVs, you may find yourselves in a region in which stoves have already been introduced.
- Your job may involve more follow-up and evaluation of different designs than the promotion of stoves.
- Design modifications of existing stoves can be identified through testing and evaluation.
Step 2. (5 minutes)
Explain the procedures to be followed in evaluating and testing the amount of wood used by cookstoves. Trainer Notes
Have the participants form small groups to design and use a method for testing and evaluating the amount of wood necessary to boil water on their cookstoves.
Ask each group to record general rules and specific variables during their tests.
Mention that they will have SO minutes to design and carry out their evaluations.
Refer them to Lorena Stoves, for background information.
Step 3. (50 minutes)
Have the participants form small groups and design and carry out their tests and evaluations.
Step 4. (25 minutes)
Reconvene the groups and discuss the general rules and specific variables that they recorded. Trainer Notes
Have participants name and discuss the rules and variables that they noted. Record these responses on newsprint in two columns, one entitled, "Rules," and the other, "Variables." The following lists include some of the responses that should be discussed: Rules Variables
- Define objective * Temperature and quantity of water Weather conditions
- Establish realistic, representative cooking conditions * Altitude
- Change only one variable during tests * Wood (type, moisture content, size, rate of burning)
- Repeat each test using the same stove operator * Stove operator
* Type and size of cooking vessels (clay, aluminum, iron with/without lids) For a more complete list of variables, see Helping People in Poor Countries.
Stress that the stove operator is often the most significant variable.
Mention the difficulties of gathering reliable data for testing fuel consumption in cookstoves.
Ask the group about data interpretation:
How do you use data to optimize design of cookstoves, within the limits of local cooking customs?
The ideal would be to use the results of the consumption tests to design a stove that will bring water to a boil quickly in one pot and allow a second pot to simmer.
Step 5. (20 minutes)
Have participants identify and discuss criteria, other than wood consumption, that could be used to evaluate a stove. Trainer Notes
List the participants' responses on newsprint. If necessary, stimulate the discussion by suggesting such criteria as: health, hygiene, convenience, suitability to local cooking needs, etc.
Explain that the most widely accepted method for testing and evaluating these other criteria is through the use of a "survey."
Step 6. (10 minutes)
Have the participants identify and discuss the major points of an effective survey. Trainer Notes
Major points of a survey include:
- An unbiased sample
- A large sample
- An accurate recording of observations
Refer participants to Dutt, Field Evaluation of Cookstoves, for further information.
Step 7. (5 minutes)
Conclude the session by having a participant summarize the major points that were discussed. Trainer Notes
Ask him/her to comment on the kinds of information one could expect to obtain through surveys, cooking simulation tests and actual field measurements.
