International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

This module describes how to engage communities in their own recovery process, with the underlying beneficial effects on the psychological consequences of critical events. Community self-help is relevant to all relief operations and humanitarian interventions and therefore to all Red Cross – Red Crescent programmes. It is not a new approach, and has been used as part of methods relevant to Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment (VCA) and Participatory Rural Approach (PRA)123 where the intention is to enable communities to identify their own vulnerabilities and capacities.

You are experiencing community participation in this course. The learning method used underlines participation by encouraging participants to take an active role in their own learning. Activities are primarily focused on communication and dialogue among participants, and on collaboration, using their own experiences, skills and capabilities to achieve joint goals.