PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988-2001 1 We live on prayers: the use of video in community development

Document begins: PLA Notes CD-ROM 1988­2001 1 We live on prayers: the use of video in community development Hilde Van Vlaenderen Background matters and had subsequently left, never to return. The villagers argued that the plight of the community could not really be captured in In the early 1990's, Kagiso Trust, a South `the few words spoken during a meeting with African development agency, commissioned a village elders' and that for the research team to research team (of which the author was part) to really grasp the problems of the community, conduct a needs analysis in a rural district in they would have to `take a look' at how the the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. people in the village lived. After further Kasigo Trust had allocated money for a discussion, a suggestion came from a member development programme in the Healdtown of the residents association to produce a video District and wanted to identify the to show the community's problems. development priorities of the 14 villages in the district. As part of the needs analysis, the research team held group meetings, interviews Making the video with key informants and facilitated self surveys in all the villages. At a ...