Empowerment at village level through a workshop method

This article describes the activities and lessons learned of a 2-day workshop held in Sheikhupura District in Punjab, Pakistan. The project aim was to strengthen primary health care and to include the community in health development. The pilot program established Village Health Committees (VHCs) to promote local participation. Villagers decided that VHCs should be representative of the community. The community elected traditional birth attendants, teachers, holy men, and village activists. Workshops were held with VHCs in order to provide basic concepts of community awareness, organization, and development. Each workshop included 3-4 VHCs. Groups were comprised of up to 6 people. Workshops were held near villages and had access to lavatories. The workshop aims were identified throughout individual sessions and linked with each other. Facilitators kept discussions relevant, objective, and interesting. Participants introduced each other, which provided an opportunity to establish comfort and trust. Initial discussions centered on health issues that were introduced as interrelated. The health system issues was related to the village situation. Participants were asked to develop a health system model. The aim of the sessions was to reinforce the importance of the role of community. An exercise was conducted to illustrate the importance of dialogue and collective work. Participants discussed the nature of community organization and means of development, threats to the village, and empowerment. The workshops created awareness of the process of community involvement in development and were ongoing.     

A: Reviews: general

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ARABISCHE AMTLICHE BRIEFE DES 10. BIS 16. JAHRHUNDERTS AUS DER ÖSTERREICHISCHEN NATIONALBIBLIOTHEK IN WIEN. By Werner Diem. (Documenta Arabica Antiqua 3.) Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 1996. 411 pp. (Textband), 80 plates (Tafelband). 192 DM.

99 BEEKASHI‐WITZE/BEKTA?? FIKRASI: Deutsch‐Türkisch. By Ali Duran Gülçiçek and Rüdiger Benninghaus. Cologne, Ethnographica Anatolica, 1996. 212 pp.     

Reviews

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Anne Edwards and Susan Magarey (eds), Women in a Restructuring Australia: Work and Welfare (Allen & Unwin) St Leonards, NSW, 1994.

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Ruth Frankenberg, White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness (Routledge) London, 1993.     

B: Reviews and notes: bibliographies and works of reference

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Reviews

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Josef C. Brada and Istvan Dobozi, eds., The Hungarian Economy in the 1980s: Reforming the System and Adjusting to External Shocks. London: JAI Press Inc., 1988, xv+277 pp., $58.50 (Instit), $35.10 (Indiv.).

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Reviews

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Drug Trafficking and Drug Policies in the Americas: Change,Continuity, and Challenges

Bruce M. Bagley and Jonathan D. Rosen, eds., Drug Trafficking, Organized Crime, and Violence in the Americas Today. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015. Figures, tables, index, 464 pp.; hardcover $84.95, paperback $35. Julie Marie Bunck and Michael Ross Fowler, Bribes, Bullets, and Intimidation: Drug Trafficking and the Law in Central America. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012. Figures, maps, tables, abbreviations, bibliography, index, 448 pp.; hardcover $93.95, paperback $34.95. Winifred Tate, Drugs, Thugs, and Diplomats: U.S. Policymaking in Colombia. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2015. Illustrations, bibliography, index, 304 pp.; hardcover $90, paperback $25.95, ebook $24.65. Roberto Zepeda and Jonathan D. Rosen, eds., Cooperation and Drug Policies in the Americas: Trends in the Twenty‐First Century. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2014. Bibliography, index, 288 pp; hardcover $100, paperback $39.99, ebook $39.99.     

Trump Is The Right Leader To Achieve Peace With North Korea

If he treads carefully and follows these steps, he may be the US president to turn the tables on this conflict.     

Chinese Prosperity Doesn't Bring Democracy

The return of the Middle Kingdom to the center stage of history is the most significant geo‐civilizaitonal development of the 21st Century. China's rise raises anew the great question, thought settled after the Cold War, of what system of governance will stand on the right or wrong side of history. In this section the leading ideologists of the China model and its “peaceful rise” appear alongside the fiercest critics of China's way.