Community Work and Its challenges

Bring change has never been easy. It is a journey and it has a number of challenges.

Lack of funds are one of the key challenges. In our organization we sent our proposals for funding. Sometimes we get, some time funds come late and this interfere with the work plan. When funds are not enough, this limit the number of the people to attend to. Lack of funds also hinders monitoring and follow up processes. Besides getting information via emails, sometimes there is a need to be in those communities physically, interact with youth. Besides training in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, we also equip them with skills that would enable them to sustain themselves economically, but most of the time, these young people have no means to start the projects and they become idols hence vulnerable and manipulative. This could lead them to misconduct again.
Cultural beliefs can also be a problem. In most cases, when you need people to work with it likely that you will get a list full of men names.

The other issue is that we are in dynamic environment/society. Things keep changing especially in the field of Peace and conflict. Sometime is if difficult to measure the result.

In order to handle these challenges, we keep trying to find out the organizations that funds the kind of the work we are involved in, we also network with other organizations that we are in the same field of work so that we can carry out some joint activities for example workshops, or trainings, etc. When there are opportunities within such organizations, we also inform the youth from our constituency (Great Lakes region and Horn of Africa) so that they could participate. Strategic fundraising is important. Networking help also to get to know what is happening here and there
.
Also when it comes to inviting youth for meetings, conferences or trainings, we give clear indication on the target group of people we want and also we emphasize on gender balance. This also enable us to get those young people who are active and able to go back in communities/ churches and also train others, or transfer their knowledge to others.

Pulse and other on line communities will help to overcome these challenges. They help to create awareness on these challenges because they provide space to talk about it. Right now might realize that some of the challenges are unique and others are common, as community on line we can then help one another on how to deal with them and come up with way forward.

Thank you