In this post, FFHC project manager Pateh explains how the beneficiaries of the project were chosen
When launching a new project, one of the first things to do is to identify project beneficiaries. It is important to include community members in this procedure also to avoid possible conflicts, and also to make sure the community members have a chance to participate in the decision making.
Tesito project targets the most vulnerable households. 90 women were chosen to become farmers and 8 women (+1 man) beneficiaries of the revolving fund. It was important to identify those 99 most vulnerable households to be able to choose beneficiaries for the project. In Jiffarong, there is no statistics, or list of households and their income, or how many people live in each household. Most families have 10-14 people living in the same compound. Almost all of the households are vulnerable, so choosing only 99 households from approximately 150+ households was very difficult.
Project assistant Hawa collecting data in Jiffarong
The best way to identify beneficiaries in Gambia and in a community like Jiffarong, is to work with the community members and involve them in the choosing of beneficiaries. Jiffarong has four “kabilos”, which means that each family has their own women’s group of representatives. To make sure that all the kabilos, which represent the whole community, get their voices heard, each Kabilo chose set amount of beneficiaries among themselves.
Meeting in front of Alkalo’s house
First the project team together with the VDC (village development committee) and the heads of the “Kabilos” conducted a profiling exercise of the 153 households in Jifarrong to produce a detailed registry of each household with name of the head of household, marital status, household size, number of women, men and children. There was high enthusiasm among community members to receive the pilot project development objectives. Participants showed great interest and commitment in looking forward to the successful implementation of the project activities.
After the kabilos had named the beneficiaries from each group, project management team together with the village head, “kabilos” representatives, VDC representatives and community members checked the accuracy of the list and engaged the village head, “kabilos heads and VDC to validate the list.