San
Public Relations
Officers Course
An
informal needs assessment conducted among the WIMSA member organisations
and the San Traditional Authorities (TAs) established that a higher
number of San should acquire organisational, administrative, linguistic
and representation skills if the San are to be able to take up the
ever-increasing number of invitations to send representatives to
national and international conferences, indigenous peoples’
fora, summits, seminars, workshops, etc. To increase the number
of San able to communicate the aspirations, views, plans, problems
and achievements of their people in a professional and motivational
manner, the University Centre for Studies in Namibia (TUCSIN) and
WIMSA jointly designed a course in public relations for young San
with some working experience in San community development. The pilot
course was run at and by TUCSIN. A total of 12 San (6 women, 6 men)
from Namibia and Botswana took the pilot course from March 2002
to March 2003. The pilot ran over four terms of 6-8 weeks each,
with three breaks of 4-6 weeks each during which the students returned
to their respective organisations to apply in practice what they
had learnt.
The pilot course consisted of three essential components including
content subjects, skills awareness and training, and practical application.
The content subjects covered cultural anthropology, southern African
history, English, accounting and law. The skills awareness and training
component was designed to build negotiation skills, leadership skills,
study skills, computer skills, etiquette and professionalism. The
practical application component involved excursions to relevant
places of interest and attendance at functions and events such as
sessions of parliament, city council meetings and conferences to
which San were invited to send representatives.
Table
1: PRO Course Participants 2002
The highlight of the first term was a four-day study tour to the
Brandberg and Twyfelfontein, two of the most renowned rock art sites
in Namibia. This excursion enabled the students to view at first
hand and interpret some art of their ancestors, but also very importantly,
to enjoy a sense of ‘commonality’ among themselves and
with their escorts, namely Beatrice Sandelowsky, course co-ordinator
and former TUCSIN Director, current TUCSIN Director Henriette Rispel,
and course lecturer Leslie Maasdorp. During the first term the WIMSA
Co-ordinator and his San counterpart delivered lectures on WIMSA’s
regional structure, donor requirements, San intellectual property
rights and WIMSA’s Regional Oral Testimony Collection Project.
The first term concluded with a media conference, and the students
took responsibility for making the presentations, decorating the
room, operating the sound system and designing the overall format.
For the students the highlight of the second term was clearly the
“Speechcraft” course. This can be attributed to the
lively sessions of experienced lecturer Emerenchia Meyer, and to
the wide range of issues covered, including effective listening,
body language, and the preparation, presentation and evaluation
of speeches. One student from Botswana never returned to the course
after the first term. It is believed that her interest in getting
involved in local politics presided over her interest in the course.
Much of the third term was devoted to preparing for participation
in the WIMSA General Assembly, where the students would present
issues significant to San communities through role-plays. The issues,
namely “HIV/AIDS”, “Taking law into our own hands”
and “Leadership and corruption”, were selected by the
students themselves, and their performances were a great success
in the General Assembly.
In the fourth and final term the computer training sessions were
found to be the most stimulating. Over half the students had never
learnt basic computer skills before, while others had this opportunity
to upgrade or refresh their skills.
One of the students from Botswana left the course four weeks before
its completion. While this was regarded as a setback in terms of
financial support lost due to early termination, it was also felt
that the other students’ strong guidance to the applicable
student on the matter was a valuable part of their overall empowerment
process.
All four terms of the pilot course ended with an evaluation by the
students of their own progress, the lecturers’ performance
and the overall curriculum. The evaluation results as well as the
lecturers’ assessments of the students’ performance
and the WIMSA team’s observations were discussed before each
new term, and as far as possible TUCSIN incorporated the most important
recommendations into the curriculum for the next term. |
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