Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] Barefoot Professionals

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Gaden@ziplip.com" <Gaden@ziplip.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Barefoot Professionals
  • Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 09:39:35 -0700 (PDT)

Re: John Schinnerer - "A friend of mine in college really really wanted to go
work offering basic health services in '3rd world' countries. As she looked
more and more into what NGOs and agencies and so on she might work with, she
discovered that in order to 'qualify' for actual hands-on work with almost
all of them, she had to be an M.D.!!! When in fact what the clients needed
was more like the above - basic trauma care, basic preventative and
outpatient health services, nothing the average paramedic or nurse couldn't
quite easily provide (and train them to provide)."

It is a problem repeated in many countries, even the more affluent. In many
instances we've 'over-professionalised' of certain community roles. To
educate a person to the expected peak professional skills requires a
considerable investment of time, money and motivation. Perhaps not
unreasonably, the recipients of such training expect considerable
remuneration for their commitment. Often they also expect to have
considerable technological resources at hand for their use.

Smaller communities, remote and isolated communities, and the empoverished
lack the resources (financial, technology etc.) to retain the services of
these professionals. However, most of the community's needs can be met by
experienced paraprofessionals.

In many regions there have been grassroots growth in what some call the
'barefoot professionals' movement. (The name comes from a Chinese publication
"A Barefoot Doctor's Manual" published in the 70's) I've had some involvement
in this area.

Essentially, it is about creating appropriate level training courses for
nominated community members. The community selects several people to
participate. These people are then brought into a central location and put
through a shortened training course in particular skillsets. (2-6 weeks is
fairly average)

Bringing people in rather than training insitu is deliberate. People from
several communities study together with the aim of fostering peer-support
networks. The absence from the community during training also tends to raise
the status and credibility of the students.

These types of programs have been developing in many areas, India especially.
In most cases, the sponsoring organisations are small local NGOs which is
great for ensuring local ownership. Midwifes, nurses, teachers, mechanics
(incl alt tech), financial advisors, micro-business are just a few
professions.

An interesting area of development is the skilling of quite young
people.'Children as Agents of Change' concept grew out of papers written for
the International Year of the Child (1979). Developed at a local level, this
approach can be very powerful. I think there is a risk of this approach
becoming exploitative when used enmass or politically. (children - agents of
change or junior propagandists?)

It would be more difficult to enable some of these concepts in westernized
cultures due to the over-preponderance of laws, regulations, and bylaws.
Western culture also tends to 'infantilise' youth into their early 20s (yrs
old) Yet I've seen excellent 13yr old teachers, maternity assistants, group
leaders etc.

It's important that the young people themselves are empowered to make their
own choices and given support to make those choices achievable. 'Barefoot
training' can tap into the vitality and enthusiasm of youth. It should
augment not replace the experiences of childhood.

Gaiden



  • [permaculture] Barefoot Professionals, Gaden@ziplip.com, 07/12/2003

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page