12. “How to re-introduce the agency to the local communities”

By Paul Gol

Tearfund UK has been supporting relief, development and capacity building work in
Sudan for over 30 years, working with local partner organizations and, since 1998,
implementing an operational emergency program through its Disaster Management
Team (DMT). Tearfund’s general intervention strategy has been to reduce morbidity
and mortality in targeted populations of Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile
(Shilluk Kingdom and Mobile Nutrition Response locations).

Tearfund is verified compliant with the “People in Aid Code of Best Practice in the
management and support of Aid Personnel” and it is a signatory of the “Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs in Disaster Relief”.

Tearfund is committed to implementing Humanitarian Accountability Principles and
Standards across all its emergency programmes. This commitment seeks to;
Tearfund UK Disaster Management Team (DMT) is a certified member of HAP International
and is therefore committed to implementing Humanitarian Accountability Principles, HAP1 2007 Standards and Quality Management across all its emergency programmes.

This commitment seeks to;
o Improve the way Tearfund engages with the local communities in decisions
that affect them by striving to enhance participation of affected populations in
order to seek informed consent.
o Share information with beneficiaries in order to promote and improve
transparency through information provision.
o Provide beneficiaries with channels through which concerns can be raised.
There is an ethical commitment to listen, monitor and respond to beneficiary
concerns.
o Ensure that members of staff are provided with a thorough understanding of
Humanitarian Accountability Principles and standards.

Public information sharing
It is Friday the 2nd May 2008 and the time is 9:26 am, the venue is Tearfund Motot Feeding
Centre. A large crowd of women with children either carried in the traditional baby carrier or
walking, expectant mothers and young girls are gathered waiting patiently for the Friday
feeding procedures to begin. Lactating mothers are busy feeding their babies in the last
minute rush before they are called upon to form a queue. The nutrition staff evidently
overwhelmed by the crowd that keeps gathering are seen rushing about to make sure that
things are in place before the actual feeding begins.

At 9:30am Irene, the Nutritionist, motions to the crowd to gather on one side of the compound
in an apparent attempt to hold a public meeting. Five minutes later the large crowd is silent
and Irene through an interpreter informs the now attentive gathering that she would wish to
talk to them first on an important matter. She begins by asking if they understood Tearfund. A
woman responds by saying. “I really don’t know what Tearfund is apart from seeing you
people feeding children and expectant mothers and running the local clinic”. One woman
after another repeats the same and Irene now surprised realises that Tearfund’s four year
presence in Motot had not translated into knowledge about the agency. With this realisation she begins from basics by saying that Tearfund is a Christian humanitarian agency registered in the United Kingdom and operating in many countries of the world including Sudan. She added that Tearfund responds to disaster by implementing emergency programmes. The Motot programme covered Uror county and focused on nutrition feeding for the under five years malnourished children, lactating mothers, primary health care and community health education and promotion. She further emphasised the need for them as the programme beneficiaries or their representatives to give feedback to Tearfund and that it was their right to raise concerns or complaints to enable Tearfund to address them and for improvement in the service. She said that no one would be victimised for raising complaints.

In response the women appreciated the work of Tearfund and particularly the assistance in the
drilling of boreholes and the local Primary Health Care Unit. They said that the two facilities
had greatly reduced the burden on women. Irene informed them that during the next meeting she would talk about their rights and entitlements, Tearfund staff and complaints handling mechanism.

Key Learning Points
~Humanitarian agencies, Tearfund included, make assumptions that they are known by the
community.
~Beneficiaries desire to know more about us (Tearfund) what we stand for and what we
intend to do and above all how we intend to do it, what it is that is community stake.
~When we talk about ourselves openly, communities are able to pick our perception of
ourselves and as a result and are likely to trust us more and thereby endeavour to build better
working relationship with us (Tearfund).

For further information contact:
Paul Gol
Dmt-afghan-ao@tearfund.org or paulgol@socialwork.net