[Ailist] AI summit with the illiterate people

[Patricia Lustig]

Dear Parashu,

In 1996 Ravi Pradhan, Sahadev Mahat and I ran a set of summits (2) for PLAN
International with a cross section of all their stakeholders.  The PLAN
staff first interviewed some people themselves, but we did the interviews
also with groups that included illiterate farmers etc. in the Summit. We got
them to draw their stories on the ground, using flipchart paper and pens.
They needed some cajoling because for instance, the women kept saying it
wouldn't come (aundina, aundina)  but finally we could convince them.  We
separated the people into women, men and children so that everyone could
have a voice.  We did not allow them to write, even those who could; the
stories would have to be told from the drawings.  One person from each group
would stand up and tell the stories.

In 1998 (I think) a group of us (including Mac Odell) worked in Phakhel
(where my Nepali family come from) doing almost exactly what you are talking
about.  We worked with whomever showed up on that day and did the interviews
either everyone in a group working on a large piece of paper OR giving each
person a piece of blank paper and a felt-tip pen to draw their story of what
made them proud when they worked together as a village.  Then for dreaming
they drew on flip chart paper, the same for design and delivery.

When we would revisit them (I went out several times a year to work with the
villagers) we would start with discovering how much had been achieved since
the last time, then move to checking in with the dream and seeing what had
changed, if any additions needed to be made (we kept the flip charts with
Dreams at the schools where we met) and then designed our next steps.

You can find articles on this on my website (www.lasadev.com) AND on the Ai
Commons.  I have subsequently used this method in Bangladesh and Indonesia
in villages.  It works equally well there too! 

If you have any questions beyond this, please do ask - happy to help!

All the best
Tricia

Patricia Lustig
Director
LASA Development UK Ltd
 
www.lasadev.com
 
Tel: +44 (0)1285 643469
Mob/cell: +44 (0)7795 257112

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Parashu
Sent: 20 March 2009 05:26
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: [Ailist] AI summit with the illiterate people 

Dear All,
Namaste from Nepal !
I need to do summits (with a certain purpose of research) with the people of
rural parts of Nepal where most of the people are illiterate . I have to
interview as many people as I can and the best way to do is to do the
summits (I think). Even in summit, there can be very few people who can
interview others. Does anybody have any experience of doing summits with
such people? Or is there any references/books/articles regarding this
subject? Do you know if the book "The Appreciative Inquiry Summit"(By Jim
Ludema and .......) available in the internet? We don't have any books of AI
in our market. 
parashurt at gmail.com
parashu at wlink.com.np 

Appreciatively

Parashu Ram Timalsina (PR)
Secretary General 
Nepal Appreciative Inquiry National Network (NAINN)
977-1-5529844 (R)
977-98510-19145 (Cell)
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