Community Based Learning in Action

Community Based Learning in Action (CBLA) motivates communities to adopt healthier behavior.  

When people understand why their behavior is making them sick – and why new behaviors are healthier – they’re able to choose healthier behaviors. CBLA helps a community identify its own problems and then devise its own solutions. The result: community members become internally motivated to change. They change not because they are told to, but because they believe it is in their best interest.

The process begins with small peer groups meeting to discuss their problems, their causes, and possible solutions. Unlike traditional approaches, GTLI pays no per diem and offers no handouts. People attend because they want to feel better and because their peers attend.

above: Dobe leading CBLA group of her peers

Initially the meetings are led by GTLI staff. But quickly, natural leaders emerge. The leaders (ergas) receive training and begin facilitating the meetings. The community begins teaching itself and GTLI transitions to a support role.

Meanwhile, elders and other influential leaders model the new behaviors. High-impact activities graphically demonstrate the dangers of the old behavior and, motivated by these demonstrations, other community members join in. Now a collective movement builds toward community-wide change.

Now GTLI transitions again – from actively leading activities to supporting the community as it manages its own behavioral transition.

We have used CBLA to motivate Hamar communities to choose pit latrine use over open field defecation, to keep their wells fenced, and to practice hygiene in order to reduce disease. But there is another aspect of CBLA that is equally important. By helping communities identify and solve their own problems, CBLA enables them to transition from being passive recipients of  circumstance to active catalysts of their own well-being. It is a vital step toward self-sufficiency.

above: GTLI Community Mobilizer Yehwalashet Belete leads a CBLA group