This past weekend was a major mark in my service to date. Since the end of September, I have been organizing a PDM (Project Design Management) training project with 2 other Volunteers that just took place last weekend. This training was the first of it's kind for our Thai communities. Before the actual PDM Training, we took 1 day to go over the materials with 3 Host Country National Thai Counterparts to prepare them to teach the material. PDM is a formal process of project planning that is not necessarily common in local Thai communities. The value of it lies in the transparency, practicality, and conceptualization of the project process it affords. The sections are broken down to visioning, goals, objectives, feasibility test, action plan, budget, monitoring and evaluation. Basically, you start broad and narrow a vision into smaller goals and objectives that can be performed in a particular time period given the resources (monetary and otherwise) available. In the design process, monitoring and evaluation plans are also determined. Bottom line: Begin with the end in mind. (Thank you Stephen Covey)
My part in this project was a two-fold contribution. Being part of the Volunteer Committee (PRC) that wrote the new PDM Training Model, I was given the task of taking my understanding of the model, teaching it to HCN Thai Counterparts then, guiding them in training local Thai community groups and government workers on PDM Modules. All the while I was taking note of what worked , what didn't, and how the participants were reacting to the training material overall. On Peace Corps supporting end, we had 4 PRC members come to oversee/facilitate, 2 Bangkok Administrative Staff, and the 2 other Volunteers co-hosting the training with me. At the training there were 33 total participants--11 from 3 different sub-districts--1/2 government workers and 1/2 community group members. The training was new in the sense that PDM had never been taught by Thais to Thais before (in the past it had always been conducted by a PRC member or Peace Corps Administrative Staff) In addition, the villager participants and government workers that came from 3 different sub-districts had never been trained on PDM before. The idea was to get government workers and community member to design a project together--being lead by 3 of their peers (our 3 HCN Thai Counterparts). Considering, community members and government workers rarely design project together in such a controlled setting, it was a pretty audacious ambition.
It's a bit confusing and when I think back to all the moving parts that were simultaneously pulled and levered during the PDM Training, I too get lost.
We found that some things worked and others could be improved. My personal feat was a great sigh of relief when it was all said and done and a sense of accomplishment I had been waiting for since I arrived here.
The big ideas I took away from this experience we're:
HCN Thai Counterparts are apt and more than capable of teaching the PDM process.
Taking people (government workers and villagers) out of their traditional settings and putting them into a non-threatening, learning environment opens up a whole new portal and level of communication that may have not existed otherwise.
Don't assume anything!
Government workers and villagers can design projects together.
Always leave room for adjustment.
Be humble.
If you give people the chance, they can and will perform above and beyond your wildest expectations.
I, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, can do meaningful work!
