Pilot Community Outreach Workshop in Seke

The initial idea for hosting a series of pilot workshops in the communities came during our 2017 planning sessions. Nurtured by feedback from the participants of the leadership program and responding to continuous requests from our partner communities, Kufunda decided to design a Community Pilot Workshop that will give an introduction to the main areas of Kufunda’s teachings and support communities in regaining a sense of what they can do together.

A team of Kufundees, consisting of people with knowledge in the Art of Hosting techniques as a way to bring people together to host conversation that matter and Kufundees working in the areas of herbs, permaculture, compost toilets, bee keeping, and mushroom growing are going into the communities to explore ways of learning, working and living together.

Seke as the closest community to Kufunda was chosen and it turned out to be a good choice. The Kufunda team met people who were ready to receive new learnings and ready to contribute with open minds and hearts –a fertile ground for more insights to arise.

The workshop started with an appreciative inquiry and the five capitals as a way to direct people’s perspective on focusing on what they have rather than on what they don’t have and to practically look at how to improve their livelihoods. The stories about Kufunda projects gave food for thought and practical impulses about what type of income generating activities can be conducted in the communal context. Some of the projects like the Compost Toilets, the herbal processing and permaculture were demonstrated and people enjoyed being fully part of that.

After the Art of Hosting methods and the practical demonstrations, space for visioning and dreaming was created and people were invited to bring their wishes for the community together and start shaping their future according to what it can be when heart, head and hands work towards a bigger vision.

There was a hunger and an eagerness to learn more, and so several of the community members will be coming to Kufunda from September when our Leadership for Sustainable Community Modules kick off. They can choose between personal leadership, community engagement and several practical modules.

It is good to be back out doing work directly in the rural communities after a long period of only hosting our offerings at Kufunda.