Arrange a community meeting to share all the information gathered. Present the information clearly showing all the important facts. Present each chart in turn, using different people. Explain how the information was gathered, who was involved, people’s response and whether there were any difficulties. At the end of each short presentation, share a clear conclusion. Ask if people agree with the findings. Then allow time for questions and discussion.
As information is presented, make sure that key questions are raised and discussed:
- How do we know this is an important problem?
- What are local people doing about this problem at present?
- What will happen if we do not take any action on this issue?
The community owns this information. Consider if there is somewhere for these charts to be on permanent display. Now arrange another community meeting to plan for action.
Discussion
- As charts are prepared for this community meeting, how can they be made as clear as possible?
- If people do not find numbers easy to understand, how can information be shared simply but effectively? If possible, discuss the use of percentages and ways of showing the findings in pictures. (Maybe you could ask a school teacher who teaches maths for help.)
- Before the meeting, choose two people to present each chart. Encourage those who lack confidence to do this as well.
- Who will be responsible for asking the key questions when the results are discussed? This needs to be someone good at encouraging and managing discussion in a big group. They also need to be able to gather the discussion together to form a conclusion to each question.
- What other questions could be asked?
- Are people in our community now fully aware – both of their own resources and strengths, and the challenges we face if we want to change things for the better? How have people in our community responded so far to the mobilisation process?
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