The Principles of Community Empowerment

The community empowerment is generally known to make the community self-sufficient and be able to settle disputes and resolutions without the help of others. This means that communities have made independently with exploiting all the potential that exists in the village. However, in carrying out that people need to be empowered and aware that there are some basic principles to create a community that empowered or independent, namely:

Awareness

To be able to go forward or do something, they should be awakened from sleep. Thus the communities should be awakened from backwardness and from life that don’t think about the future. The community who thought sleeping was’nt having a problem, because they don’t have aspirations and goals to be fought. Awareness means that the communities as a whole become aware that they have objectives and problems. Conscious communities will find opportunities and benefits, find resources that exist on the ground may have never thought by them. Conscious community become increasingly sharp in knowing something was going on inside and outside between them environment. Communities will be able to formulate needs and aspirations. 

Training

The Education or training is not only learn to read, write and count, but to improve skills for farming, care of the household, industries, and others. They will also learn from sources that can be obtained to determine how to use the services of the bank, how to open an account and obtain a loan. Learning is not only be done through the schools, but it also through informal meetings and discussion groups to talk about their problems. Through education, the communities awareness will continue to grow. It should be stressed that everyone in the communities should receive education, including parents, women including children. The big idea is contained behind the education of the poor that the knowledge to harness the power.

Organizing

The communities will become stronger and be able to determine its own destiny, that the communities aren’t enough just trained skills, but they should be organized. Organization means that everything can be done in an orderly way, there is division of labor among the individuals who will be responsible for the execution of tasks. And there is leadership that not only consists of a few of people, but the leadership is many levels. The communities can not be organized without the meetings are held regularly to make decisions and see that the decisions are implemented. Representatives of all the communities should participate in the decision-making process. In addition to regular meetings, recording the decisions that have been taken will be very helpful. The results of the meeting will be read at the next meeting to determine that the officer responsible for decision in performing the task. The tasks should be distributed to various communities, including youth, women, and parents. Bookkeeping healthy is also very important. Everyone should know the use of money and how much the rest. Bookkeeping should be controlled regularly every month to avoid any fraud.

Development of The Strength

The power means the ability to influence others. When in a community there is no awareness, training or organization, they will feel helpless and has no strength. They would always say that "we can not, we don’t have the strength." At a time when the communities feels has potential or force, they will not say again, "we can not", but they would say "we are able!". The communities will be confident. Their fate is in their own hands. In this condition, the help of a physical nature, money, technology and others, it is mean of change of attitude only. When the communities have the power, half the battle is already won for development.  It must be emphasized that power completely from the communities instead of one or two leaders. The strength of the communities should be control of the power of the leader.

Build The Dynamics

The dynamics of the communities means that the communities who decide and implement its programs in accordance with the predefined plans and decided. In this context, the decisions will be taken inside and outside of the communities. The decreasing control of the communities against the decisions. Then it would be dangerous that the communities are unaware of these decisions or their decisions have been mistaken. The decisions should be taken as close as possible to the place of execution or target.

Indonecom © 2017.03.15 - PNPM MPd.

The Community Empowerment

The term of community empowerment in general can be defined as a process that builds human or community through community capacity building, community behavioral change, and community organizing. Usually community empowerment has been done in the villages, especially in the villages are still undevelopment. Community empowerment emerge due to a condition in community. Socio-economic conditions of community is very low, cause they don’t afford and don’t know. This happens, because they can’t enjoy an adequate education. Incompetence and ignorance of the community resulting in very low productivity.

The ability of the community to be developed. A lot of shortcomings, such as: the ability to strive, the ability to search for information, the ability to manage activities in the agricultural capability, the ability to resolve problems that occur and so on. In according to the needs or problems faced by the community.

The community behavior that needs to change is the behavior that harm the community or inhibits the increase in community welfare. For example: Toxicity defecate in any places, children should help their parents, women were never involved in the development, pregnant women never checked to the doctor, and so on.

The community organizing can be described as a community effort to regulate each others in managing the activities or programs that they can develop. Here the community can form a working committee, did the division of tasks, supervising, make a planning the activities, and so on. Indigenous institutions that already exist should be involved because it is an established institution, increasing its ability to stay alone.

Its happens, because the community have not mastered the technology that could help ease the burden of their work. They are forced to use conventional technology. They have learned for generations with minimal results. At first glance would seem, that they are satisfied with their results, but in fact they are still able to do things better. Then to develop the potential or the ability and attitude of life that includes developing the ability to farm, herding, self-employment, or other skills that are improving the productivity of community.

How to develop abilities and skills of the community ?. The development can be done in various ways, such as: training or include in training communty  development capabilities and skills required. You can also invite the communty to visit another place activities with the intention that the communty can see at once learned, these activities are often referred to as a comparative study. You can also provide reading books that works for community needs or specialization. There are still many other forms that can be pursued. 

Couse that the attitudes need to change, the attitude of living harmful or inhibit increase welfare. Changing attitudes are not an easy job. Why, because the community have experience for years, even decades already doing is like that. For it requires quite a long time to make a change in attitude. The trick to provide is awareness that they have been done to their detriment. This can be done by providing a lot of information by using a variety of media, such as reading books, invites to look elsewhere, the film set lighting, and so on. 

On community organizing, the key is put the community as the culprit. The community need to be invited to start planning activities, implementation, to maintenance and preservation. The community involvement from the outset allows to have the opportunity to learn more. At the beginning of the activities may require a companion as a companion who will give information or explanations even give examples directly. At this stage, more community to learn, but at the later stage assistants must start giving the community an opportunity to try to be able to do themselves. If this is the case, when the escort left the community, they are able to do it alone or independently.

Indonecom © 2017.03.13 - PNPM MPd.