Assessment of Community Assets and ABCD Practice, Challenges and Coping mechanism: A Case Study of Aroge Arada Community, Wolaytta Soddo Town.
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2020-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The basic purpose of this study is assessing community assets, ABCD practices, Challenges and coping mechanism of Aroge Arada community. My philosophical stance to guide this study was social constructivist world view; and descriptive qualitative case study with cross-sectional design was employed. Also, purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used in the study. The participants of the study include: interviewees [key informant interviewee (7) and in-depth interviewee with two groups: entrepreneurs in the community (5) and community elders (7)], focus group discussions [with community development agents (7) and community grass root leaders (6)]; besides, field observation, and photography and videography were the other tools employed during the data collection. Consequently, the collected data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Most importantly, the study found out that the community has plenty of indigenous and endogenous assets and ABCD practices, both at the individual, and community levels. As individuals’ assets, factories and different business [micro- small, medium, and large level], exist in the community; whereas, community’s assets described in their capital forms as: social, economic, cultural, human, physical, and political capital assets. Besides, the best ABCD practices, like: “Iddir”, “Shufuwa”, “Jalla”, “Jigiya”, “Daguwa”, “Ye Iddir tureta”, “Yemender Ikkub”, “Guttara”, “Kidmiya” women economic empowerment project, health extension program, and environmental conservation are presented in this paper. The challenges hindering fully practicing ABCD in the community are: the wide ranged social problems, lack of sufficient ABCD catalysts, and the victim blaming nature of the practice; similarly, limitations like loss of motivation, dependency syndrome, and lack of knowledge of both development agents and grassroots community on the concept of ABCD practices exist in the community. Remarkably, in order to redress these challenges and limitations, the community used coping mechanisms such as strengthening the social ties among the community members, rising funds, mobilizing potential building blocks, generating job opportunities, maximizing community enrolment, and getting most out of community grassroots leaders and development workers. The implications for social work include: education, research, policy, and community development workers practice/ intervention.
Key words: Assets, ABCD practice, challenges, limitations, copping mechanism
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Keywords
Assets, ABCD practice, challenges, limitations, copping mechanism