COMMUNITY CONCERNS

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY CONCERNS

 MEANING OF COMMUNITY CONCERNS
 TYPES OF COMMUNITY CONCERNS
 IMPACT OF COMMUNITY CONCERNS ON DEVELOPMENT
POVERTY
 CONCEPT OF POVERTY
 LEVELS OF DISASTER
 CAUSE OF POVERTY
 IMPACT IOF POVERTY
DISASTERS
 MEANING OF DISASTER
 TYPES OF DISASTERS
 CAUSES OF DISASTERS
 DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
 IMPACT OF DISASTER ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
POOR HEALTH
 MEANING OF HEALTH
 DIMENSIONS OF HEALTH
 INDICATORS OF POOR HEALTH
 IMPACT OF POOR HEALTH ON DEVELOPMENT
FOOD SECURITY
 MEANING OF FOOD SECURITY
 CAUSE OF FOOD SECURITY
 IMPACT OF FOOD SECURITY
 INTERVENTION MEASURES IN FOOD SECURITY
ILLITERACY AND IGNORANCE
 MEANING IOF ILLITERACY AND IGNORANCE
 CAUSES OF ILLITERACY AND IGNORANCE
 IMPACT OF ILLITERACY AND IGNORANCE
 INTERVENTION MEASURES TO ILLITERACY AND IGNORANCE
INSECURITY
 MEANING OF INSECURITY
 CAUSES OF INSECURITY
 ROLE OF SECURITY AGENTS IN MAINTAINING LAW AND ORDER
 INTERVENTION MEASURES ON INSECURITY
RETROGRESSIVE CULTURAL PRACTICES
 MEANING OF RETROGRESSIVE CULTURAL PRACTICES
 TYPES OF RETROGRESSIVE CULTURAL PRACTICES
 CAUSES OF RETROGRESSIVE CULTURAL PRACTICES
 INTERVENTION MEASURES ON RETROGRESSIVE CULTURAL
PRACTICES

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
 MEANING OF ENVIRONMENT AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
 CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
 IMPACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
 INTERVENTION MEASURES TO ENVIRONMWENTAL DEGRADATION
 CONTEXT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
EMERGING TRENDS IN COMMUNITY CONCERNS
 EMERGING TRENDS IN COMMUNITY CONCERNS

Community
Refers to a group of people with a common identity settled in a particular region (geo –
political entity) e.g. Luo community, Maasai, Kikuyu etc.
Concern
 An area of interest
 Statement of the problem
 Immediate; worry or problem etc
Community concern
Refers to statement of problem of a particular group of people with a common identity
staying in a given geo-political entity (region). Each geo-political entity and the occupant
have unique concern or problem.
Historical background
According to sessional paper No. 9 (African Socialism and Economic application 1969)
barricaded the Kenya region into two major regions that is
1. productive region
2. unproductive region
Categories or types of community concern
Poverty
Health services
Disasters
Environmental degradation
Food shortage
Poor infrastructure
Insecurity
Illiteracy and ignorance etc

POVERTY
Poverty refers to a situation or state where one cannot meet his/her basic
needs/requirements e.g. food, clothing and shelter.
Types of poverty
1. Food poverty
This inability to acquire or meet nutrition requirement (balanced diet)
2. Absolute poverty
Inability to meet both food and material requirement (operating below one dollar a day)
3. Hardcore poverty
Lack of both food and material requirement
Indicators of poverty
1. Household
 Size of the household
 Mortality rate
 Birth rate
 Survival rate
 Source of income
 Type of energy they use
 Where they draw water
 Mode of transport
 Food nutritional value
 Education and types of schools attended
 Medical services
Impact of poverty
Poverty has a negative impact on overall development
1. poverty impede development (retard)
2. slow economic growth
3. increase mortality rate
4. high dependency or over dependent
5. increase in crime
6. increases rate of disease prevalence among members of the society
7. increases rate of illiteracy due to school drop outs
Solution to poverty (management)
1. Proper utilization of the available local resources e.g. land , human resources and
regional resources abundant e.g. Nyanza – fish, Central – cash crops
2. Government policies in accessing services such as loan or micro-finance.
3. The community should be innovative and exploit other modes of increasing
productivity.
4. Need for donor support
5. The government must initiate activities that would help the community
development
6. The community must change their attitude and adopt new forms of survival e.g.
appreciating new types of crops

Challenges of poverty eradication

a) Inability to provide credit facilities to the populace
b)Sustainability – ability for the people to make the project self reliance
c) Government policies – the government have bias policies in that they have classified
nation into productive areas and unproductive areas.
d)The donor stringent conditions e.g. only financing an on going project
e) Inability of social wo9rkers to address the core problems or issues of a community
e.g. mobilization of people, leadership
f) Environmental related problem of poverty eradication case in North Eastern.

FOOD SHORTAGE
Food insecurity – refers to a situation where the community is unable to protect
themselves against food shortage.
Food nutritional value – the number of calories extracted from a given type of food
item.
What determine food security (food safety)
i. Farm size under food crop/cash crop
ii. Types of crops cultivated
iii. Types of farming method (modern/traditional)
iv. Preservation methods

Indicators of food security

i. The community/family does not need the nutritional requirement
ii. Source their food from market/shop
iii. Relies in relief food
iv. Relies on government food ration
v. Lack of buffer stock (enough supply in stock)
vi. Faced with food shortages seasonally
vii. Relies on external food source

Solution to food security

1. The government must institute national food security policy.
2. Introducing of short span and drought resistant crops.
3. Change of attitude and adoption of modern farming methods
4. Supporting farmers in undertaking farming through the provision of seeds, fertilizers
and expertise.
5. By reclaiming land that are not under cultivation
6. By introducing irrigation
7. Introducing alternative diets to supplement food nutrients

Impact of food insecurity/consequences of food insecurity

i. Reduce the level of investment
ii. Affect body nutritional value hence make susceptible top nay form of disease attack
iii. Slow development
iv. Affect economic growth
v. Leads to household instability
vi. Increase crime rate among community members

Challenges/solutions to food insecurity (rural areas)

As a community worker you want to alleviate food security to food security what are the
challenges you are likely to face.
1. Addressing issues related with rainfall unreliability
2. Environmental issues – drought , hostile climate conditions
3. Cultural issues related to food or alternative diet
4. Food conservation – buffer stock preservation
5. Provision of farm inputs e.g. fertilizer e.g. use of local fertilizer, application of
rotation, practicing mixed farming, seeds, sprays etc.
6. land tenure system; the land too small to engage into large scale farming (engage into
group farming)

DISASTER
Refers to calamity of a wider magnitude e.g. El nino, HIV/AIDS, Tsunami, cholera etc.
It refers to unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing
significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent change to
the natural environment.
Causes of Disaster
Most are natural causes
Carelessness and being irresponsible e.g. collapse of a building (man made)

Impact of Disaster
 Causes huge financial loss
 Claims lives of humanity
 Wastages of resources
 Disrupts general development in the country
 Creates fear, uncertainty, insecurity
 Disrupts social and economic order in the country
 Loss of investment and employment opportunities
 Disrupt the normal life (handicapped, develop hysteria)
How to minimize the disaster occurrence (Management)
i. Avoid carelessness e.g. when it comes to building, constructions
ii. The government need to address issues of food once and for all
iii. The government needs to be watchful about the events or early wearing signals that
can lead to disaster.
Post disaster action
1. Need for disaster preparedness
2. Institution healing mechanism e.g. counseling the victims, material support to the
family etc.
Urban areas
1. Storage of food
2. Introduce them to kitchen farming.
3. Adopt good eating habit (minimizing wastages).
4. Supporting the rural farmers
5. Encouraged to engage in farming also in rural areas

RETROGRESSIVE CULTURAL PRACTISE

Retrogressive – refers to backwardness, negative, lack positivity, do not embrace
advancement or modernity.
Culture – way of life of a particular community
Practice – upholding of the culture
Retrogressive cultural practice
Refers to backward or negative ways of life that is upheld by a group of people.
Types of retrogressive cultural practice
a. Wife inheritance
b. Child abuse
c. Male circumcision
d. Female clitoridectomy
e. Wife beating (battery)
f. Rape
g. Forced marriage
 h. Early marriage
i. Gender discrimination
j. Stigmatization e.g. HIV/AIDS victims
k. Cattle rustling among the Maasai
l. Unrestricted social practices

POOR HEALTH
It refers to a situation where a sizeable number of populations are not physically or
clinically fine.
Where physical – is outside appearance
Clinical refers to diagnosis

Causes of poor health

1. Malnutrition – common in sub-Saharan countries and developing third world
countries
2. Environmental conditions includes air pollution
3. Public hygiene – places where food is being prepared and served must meet some
hygienic conditions.
4. Diseases attack – refers to opportunistic diseases e.g. malaria, typhoid etc.
5. Outbreak of diseases e.g. vaccinated diseases
6. Inborn diseases – this is a situation whereby the diseases are inherited from parents

How to combat poor health

1. By provision of balanced diet.
2. Undertaking vaccination.
3. Staying in clean environment
4. Observing public hygiene
5. Seeking medical attention whenever you are attacked by disease
6. Addressing the early warning signals of a disease.
7. Avoiding health hazardous activities e.g. smoking, over drinking etc.
 What are the indicators of poor health?
(1) When one is physically weak.
(2) Emaciated i.e. loss of body weight.
(3) When one is malnourished (unusual stomach).
(4) When one has a weak sight or white eyes.
(5) When one suffers from an opportunistic disease.
(6) When one cannot support himself while walking.
(7) When one has light or coloured hair.
(8) When one suffer from dry mouth
(9) When one’s body is generally scaly (rough body)

What are the consequences /impact of poor health

i. It leads to loss of life
ii. Low labour contribution (productivity)
iii. One become inactive
iv. One becomes independent
v. Leads to low life expectancy
vi. Retarded growth in children
vii. Increase in poverty level
viii. Leads to crude birth rate and high death rate
ix. Leads to high infant mortality rate
x. It lowers the pace of development or economic growth
Emerging terms are
1. Life expectancy – refers to the average age one can live
2. Crude birth rate – refers to the number of 1,000 life
3. Crude death rate – refers to the number of death in 1000 life

Internal indicators of poor health

These are indicators that are established through diagnosis/clinical/laboratory tests e.g.
VCT visit will establish whether one is HIV positive or negative; widal test establish state
of typhoid; blood test establish malaria; H.B test – blood pressure (hypertension)
(haemoglobin)

Illiteracy and ignorance

Illiteracy – refers to state where one is incapable of writing, reading and arithmetic.
Ignorance – one is incapable of interpreting the unfolding political, social and economic.

Indicators of illiteracy and ignorance

(i). When you are unexposed
(ii). When one cannot effectively address 3r’s (read, write and arithmetic)
(iii). When one hold certificate of low level
(iv). When one has poor reasoning capacity
(v). When one has low understanding skills
(vi). When one cannot comprehend common issues
(vii). When one is not applying what is regarded as common sense

Causes of illiteracy and ignorance

1. Lack of education
2. Dropping out of school
3. Poverty
4. Mental retardness
5. Not exposed to correct issues
6. When you are mentally incapacitated due to diseases attack
7. Lack of reading habits
8. Environmental related issues
9. Family background
10. One not appreciating going to school
11. Political and social instability e.g. case of Somali, case of Southern Sudan
12. Social and economic instability (case of pastoralist)
13. Gender biasness
The intervention measures to combat ignorance and illiteracy
i) Gender equality in education emphasis on girl child enrolment
ii) Campaign for schooling (the government is emphasizing on free primary
education)
iii) Introducing mobile schools and feeding programmes in arid areas
iv) Introducing special school for the mentally handicapped
v) Developing reading culture in the country by expanding public library
vi) Government introducing bursaries and grants to subsidize schools for poor
children
vii) Government undertake training, posting and paying of teachers
viii) Government expanding learning institution
ix) Government introducing post secondary institution to impact technical skills

Impact of illiteracy and ignorance

1. Slow economic development and growth
2. They are difficult to manage
3. Leads to wastage of resources
4. Leads to high rate of poverty
5. Decision making is slowed
6. Implementing policies becomes difficult
7. It leads to political instability due to lack of ability to interprete government
policies
8. Leads to underdevelopment
Retrogressive culture
Culture that are not in line with modern way of life e.g. wife inheritance, circumcision,
FGM, wife beating, gender mutilation, child labour, rape, early marriages, gender
discrimination, stigmatization, unrestricted sexual practices, ethnic superiority
Causes of retrogressive culture
 Poverty
 Illiteracy and ignorance
 Cultural practices
  Inferiority or lack of exposure
Intervention measures
 Advocacy
 Legislation
 Creating watchdog (human rights)
 Campaign against
 Highlight the negative effects of the retrogressive effects of the retrogressive
culture
 Awareness creation
 Government must pass policies for such cases
Consequences/impacts
 Disunity
 Discrimination
 Hatred
 Biasness
 Insecurity i.e. both food and internal
 Clashes
 Culture melt down
 Death i.e. attacked with HIV/AIDS
 Wastage of resources
 Retard development

INSECURITY
It is defined as a state of not being safe, protected, secure or state of being vulnerable to
any form of attack.
Types of security
1. Individual security (personal security i.e. when one’s life is threatened)
2. State security (general insecurity caused by foreign invasion and terrorism)
What are the causes of insecurity
i) Lapses in execution of security action
ii) When the authority is compromised
 iii) When order cannot be effected
iv) When there is conspiracy between the invaders and the authority concerned
v) When there is careless handling of weapons
vi) When there is civil war
vii) When there is war between two or more countries
viii) When there is eruption of ethnic violence due to ethnic suspension
ix) Cases of cattle rustling create despondency which late cause insecurity
x) When there is political instability (when there is mass action/mass
demonstration)
xi) Use of sect e.g. mungiki sect
xii) Infiltration of firearm (cases of theft and thugerrism)
The impact of insecurity
1) Lower the investment rate in a country.
2) Brood fear
3) Leads to loss of life
4) Leads to high immigration of people to safer areas
5) Leads to rise of refugees and camps
6) Limit freedom
7) Lower economic activities
8) Brings about suspicion leading to the development of psychological disorder
9) Creates political and social instability in an area, region or country
10) It makes the region, area or country to be unattractive to other people
Security Agents
1) Military force
2) Police force
3) Village vigilante (community based security formed by a group of youths)
4) Provincial administration
5) Office of the president
6) Para security officers e.g. private security firms

How to control insecurity

Insecurity intervention measures
1) Declaration of state of emergency
2) Imposing quarantine (limiting time of movement)
3) Arresting the culprits
4) Recovering of illegally acquired arms through making passionate appeal to the
population
5) Tightening security
6) Making regular inspection and checking at strategic points
7) Closing borders incase of war
8) By the community establishing vigilante groups as a community initiative
9) Preaching peace initiative among the warring groups e.g. Gema, Karamojon’g –
Pokot peace initiative to reduce cattle rustling

HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights are rights of a man that enshrined in the bill of right and is recognized by
the united organization of Human rights watch dog (basic/bill of right that enshrined in
the constitution)
Examples of Human rights
 Freedom of speech
 Freedom of expression
 Freedom of worship
 Freedom of movement
 Freedom of association
 Right to life
 Right to education
 Right to good health
 Right to property ownership
 Freedom of assembly
 Right to trial before detention
 Right to fair judgement
 Right to be heard
Examples of Human right abuse
Human right abuse refers to where one is not given the opportunity to enjoy his/her rights
and freedom or when the rights and freedom of one is infringed.
E.g.
 child labour
 battering (beating of wives)
 torture
 rape of minors/majors
 child defilement
 abandonment of family or children
 all forms of discrimination
 gender discrimination
 race discrimination
 colour discrimination
 nepotism, tribalism
 the vulnerable groups e.g. the deformed, handicapped
 corruptions and bribes
 mob justice
 delayed justice
 detention without trial
 denial of education to the child and to own property
Human rights agents
1. Media
 highlights the issues of human rights abuse
 recognizes the upholding of human rights
 educates public on the virtues of human rights
 creates awareness on hu8man rights
 researches on area of human right

2. Governmnet (state)
 Protects the human rights of the citizens
  Upholds the rights and freedom in their constitutions
 Must practice fair justice by establishing a clean judicial system
 Must bring down all forms of corruption to eliminate unfair competition
 Must also sensitize the citizens human right abuse e.g. KNHCR (Kenya
Commission of Human Rights)
 Must also eliminate all forms of discrimination e.g. gender, sex etc
 The government recognizes the international commission of human right

3. Non-governmental organization
 Educates the public on human rights
 Creates awareness
 Endeavours to promote the human rights
 Fights for citizens rights
 Highlights case when human right has abused
4. The church
 Preaches fairness in all sectors of life
 Intervenes in cases when human right has been abused
 Highlights human right abuse
 Condemns human right abuse
 Creates human rights abuse
Impact of human right abuse
1. Create social disorder; disrespect for authority
2. Psychological trauma; former detainees who cannot lead normal life; separation
from family
3. Leads to black listing of a country e.g. those who do not uphold human rights

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
It refers to a situation where the eco system (environment) is not utilized appropriately or
become disfunctional leading to interference with environmental beauty.
Forms of environmental degradation
Brick making – this activity cleans the top rich soil
Deforestation – it claims that the African continent has lost its 30% forest
Rapid urbanization (inter quartile with natural settings of the land)
Soil and vegetation degradation – caused by increased use of inorganic chemical
Reduction of fallow land (idle land)
Increased monoculture (plant one particular crop every now and then)