Brochures are often used to disseminate information to disadvantaged communities. This study attempts to evaluate the usability and effectiveness of information brochures developed by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) for development communication among developing communities on guidelines on how to grow Bambara groundnut and the cultivation of maize in a South African development context. The main objectives of the study were to establish the target audience’s comprehension, usability and effectiveness of the selected pamphlets. The study also attempted to examine the influence of the demographic and socio-economic factors on the effective communication of information. Usability here refers to the extent to which communication materials such as information pamphlets can be used by specific users to achieve specific goals namely effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context. This study’s main focus is on the distinguishing characteristics of reader focus text evaluation method as outlined in Schriver (1989). Reader focus text evaluation method was used to evaluate the usability of pamphlets in the research conducted among small-scale farmers of Tibane and Kordon at Ga-Matlala district in the Limpopo Province The two pamphlets were evaluated with the intention to establish whether the users understood the contents and whether the message was effectively communicated or not. The findings of the study indicate that the information disseminated by the ARC agricultural pamphlets is not effectively communicated because of the language and the arrangement of pictures or frames used in the pamphlets, which confused most illiterate participants. This ineffective dissemination of development information in rural communities needs to be revised to ensure its effectiveness. / Dissertation (MA (Development Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / MA / unrestricted

Many historians have presented the narrative of Canada’s Second World War experience as a “good” war. Individuals and communities came together in patriotism and a common purpose to furnish the national war effort with military manpower, labour, financial contributions, and voluntary efforts. As the dark years of the Great Depression gave way to unprecedented levels of industrial and economic growth, falling unemployment rates, increased urbanization, and a wealth of social programs, Canada’s future was bright. However, this optimistic picture is not representative of Canada as a whole. Some regions fared better than others, and industrial Cape Breton was one of those that benefited the least from the opportunities presented by the war. Glace Bay, Cape Breton’s largest mining town and long-time hotbed of industrial strife and labour radicalism, serves as an ideal case study of the region’s largely unprofitable and unchanging wartime experience. Long plagued by poverty, poor living conditions, and underdeveloped industry, and desperately seeking to break free of its destitution, Glace Bay tried and failed to take advantage of wartime opportunities for industrial diversification and local improvement.

Introdução: As comunidades quilombolas passaram a ter alguma visibilidade a partir da Constituição Federal brasileira de 1988. Objetivo: avaliar o desenvolvimento psicológico – moral e a coerção em duas comunidades quilombolas do município de Viamão/RS, relacionando a vulnerabilidade a estes conceitos. Método: Foram estudadas 62 pessoas pertencentes a duas comunidades quilombolas do município de Viamão/RS-Brasil. Todos os participantes eram maiores de 18 anos. Foram utilizados instrumentos validados para avaliar o desenvolvimento psicológico-moral e a expressão de coerção. Da mesma forma, foram realizadas observações de campo, com abordagem qualitativa, que permitiram descrever melhor as condições de pertencimento e vulnerabilidade destas comunidades. Resultados: Todos os participantes tinham capacidade para tomada de decisão no seu melhor interesse. Da mesma forma, a expressão de coerção foi baixa, atingindo um dos menores valores obtidos até a presente data em estudos semelhantes. A escolaridade destas comunidades foi precária. As noções de pertencimento e vulnerabilidade estavam presentes nos relatos que foram coletados. Conclusão: Por meio destas análises obtivemos um quadro de referência que permite diferenciar autonomia e autodeterminação, pertencimento e vulnerabilidade. / Introduction: The Quilombola communities startet to have some visibility since the Brazilian Federal Constitution of 1988. Objective: To evaluate the psychological and moral development and coercion in two rural communities in Viamão / RS relating vulnerability to these concepts. Methods: We studied 62 persons belonging to two Quilombola communities in the municipality of Viamão / Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil. All participants were over 18 years old. Two validated instruments were used to assess the moral and psychological development and the expression of coercion. Similarly, field observations were carried out with a qualitative approach, which allowed better describe the conditions of belonging and vulnerability of these communities. Results: All participants had the capacity to make decisions in their best interest. Likewise, the expression of coercion was low, reaching one of the lowest values obtained to date in similar studies. The schooling of these communities was precarious. The notions of belonging and vulnerability were present in the reports that were collected. Conclusion: Through these analyzes we obtained a framework reference that allows to differentiate autonomy and self-determination, belonging and vulnerability.

Orientadores: José Euclides Stipp Paterniani, Franco Giusepe Dedini / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T19:44:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_DanielleGoncalves_M.pdf: 3768506 bytes, checksum: 1229ddc9f91b3c65c3898169d390236d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: A elevada incidência de doenças de veiculação hídrica, devido à ausência de um sistema de saneamento suficientemente eficaz, afeta principalmente as populações que vivem em localidades pobres e em zonas rurais. Dessa forma, busca-se desenvolver cada vez mais, meios alternativos e baratos para promover a melhoria da qualidade de vida dessa população. Neste estudo é apresentado um sistema de pasteurização solar da água (SOPAS) visando desinfecção de água para consumo humano, utilizando como insumo um equipamento de aquecedor solar comercial e dois de baixo custo. Realizou-se testes para verificação da inativação de bactérias do grupo coliformes e heterotróficas nos aquecedores utilizados, os quais ficavam expostos por 8 horas ao sol, durante o período de maio de 2009 a novembro de 2010. Para detecção do grupos coliformes, usou-se a técnica do substrato cromogênico e para a heterotróficas o plaqueamento com Plate Agar Conter. De todos os equipamentos estudados, somente o equipamento de aquecedor solar comercial atingiu a temperatura de 60 º C, necessária para promoção da SOPAS, inativando o grupo coliformes. As bactérias heterotróficas não foram inativadas por nenhum dos equipamentos estudados. Para o desenvolvimento desse estudo, utilizou-se ferramentas de metodologia de projeto como: QFD e benchmarking. Isso possibilitou a realizar entrevistas em zonas rurais de modo a se verificar as condições dessas populações e propor medidas para desenvolver um equipamento para promoção da SOPAS de fácil aceitação e de custo acessível baseado nas necessidades reais do público alvo / Abstract: The high incidence of diseases caused by contaminated water, due to lack of an effective sanitation system, affects people who live in undeveloped and rural areas. In this way, the development of alternative and capable solutions improving the people quality life is researched. This research work introduces the water solar pasteurization system (SOPAS), objectiving water disinfection destined to people consumption, analyzing performance between three equipments being commercial solar heater equipment and two low cost equipments. Tests have been carried on to verify the coliform and heterotrophic bacterial group inactivation on used heaters, which have been exposed for 8 hours under sun, though May, 2009 to November, 2010. Coliform group detection has been applied the chromogenic substrate technique and heterotrophic group detection has been applied the Agar Plate Conter plating technique. It is observed among every tested equipments that only commercial solar heater reached temperature of 60°C, which is necessary to promote the (SOPAS), inactivating the coliform groups. Heterotrophic bacteria groups have not been for any tested equipments. This research work has been applied methodological project tools as: QFD and benchmarking. It allowed carrying on interviews in rural areas, in way to verify conditions of these populations and possibility to purpose actions to develop an equipment to promotion the (SOPAS) as easy acceptance and accessible cost based on real necessities of target public / Mestrado / Agua e Solo / Mestre em Engenharia Agrícola

Essa dissertação estuda as práticas culturais que transformam a paisagem das comunidades rurais Buracada, Santa Catarina e Pedra Alta, localizadas nos municípios de Muriaé e Rosário da Limeira na Zona da Mata de Minas Gerais. Paisagem é compreendida nesse trabalho como a expressão da interação de elementos construídos e não-construídos, e entre estes, os homens. Adotamos uma abordagem cultural da paisagem e a consideramos como em constante transformação. Buscamos na antropologia contribuições metodológicas para embasar o trabalho de campo e a interpretação da paisagem estudada. Nossa pesquisa de campo criou, através do relacionamento com um núcleo familiar, uma rede de interlocutores que nos auxiliou no processo de conhecimento dessas transformações. Para construir nossa interpretação aliamos nossas descrições aos relatos dos comunitários e a experiência de campo. Identificamos elementos na paisagem e procedemos com investigações sobre os mesmos, a fim de reunir conhecimento sobre o conjunto de práticas culturais locais que consideramos determinantes na transformação da paisagem. Compreender essas práticas culturais mais determinantes abre um caminho de continuidade para outras reconstruções. / This dissertation studies the cultural practices, which transform the landscape of the rural communities Buracada, Santa Catarina and Pedra Alta located in Muriaé and Rosário da Limeira municipalities, Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais State. Landscape is understood as an expression of the interaction between constructed and nonconstructed elements, men included. Investigates the landscape through a cultural perspective and considers it to be in constant transformation. Methodological contributions from anthropology consolidate our fieldwork and landscape interpretation. Creating a network within the communities\' population facilitated our investigation of these transformations. Our interpretation is based with the combination of our descriptions, interviews and fieldwork experience. Identifies landscape elements and proceeds with investigations on them to gather knowledge about the local cultural practices which we consider most determining of the landscape transformation. To comprehend these practices create the possibility of further reconstructions.

The dissertation focuses on water, which has become the focal point of global debate today among nations. This is due to ever-increasing population and the insatiable consumer demands that the market makes on humanity, putting heavy stress on natural resources, especially water. Since the 1980s, rich countries and the institutions they control, i.e. the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been forcing poor countries to implement policies and sign agreements that do them more harm than good (i.e. privatization of state assets such as water). The debt crisis drove many poor countries into structural adjustment programs as a condition for receiving IMF and World Bank aid. These programs, under various names, contain policies that compel vulnerable countries to expose their social services to competition with big profit making corporations. Through persuasion, threats, bullying and conditions attached to loans and aid, poor countries have been forced to: <ul> <li>Open their markets in order to subsidize exports from rich countries.</li> <li>Stop prioritising domestic producers.</li> <li>Divert development efforts away from local food markets, and</li> <li>Privatize essential services such as water system, electricity etc.</li></ul> These debt relief conditions and trade agreements are focused solely on making profit and not on improving the livelihood and welfare of the poor. The theory that the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO put forward is that increased trade will automatically be equal to improved welfare. This equality has not worked in practice as Raj Patel in a more or harsher description, that structural adjustment and other trade related policies could also be seen as a “weapon of mass destruction” (Znet, November 28, 2000). The author concurs with Patel’s view, as according to UNICEF, over 500,000 children under the age of five died each year in Africa and Latin America in the late 1980s as a direct result of the debt crisis and its management under the International Monetary Fund’s structural adjustments programs. These programs required the abolition of price supports on essential food-stuffs, steed reductions in spending on health, education, and other social services, and increases in taxes. The debt crisis has never been resolved for much of Sub-Saharan Africa. Extrapolating from the UNICEF data, as many as 5,000,000 children and vulnerable adults may have lost their lives in this blighted continent as a result of the debt crunch (World Policy Journal, Volume XIX, No.4, Winter 2002/03). Privatization and commodification of water system is the order of the day in many developing countries. It has raised survival issues for the poor and the marginalized, causing problems such as scarcity of safe drinking water, pollution of water and soil, and destruction of agricultural sectors in other parts of developing countries. This dissertation emphasizes that all people have internationally accepted rights to water “all peoples, whatever their stage of development and their social and economic conditions, have the right to have access to drinking water in quantities and of a quality equal to their basic needs” (United Nations 1977). This right is being violated for millions of people around the globe, particularly in developing countries such as Africa, Asia and Latin America. This dissertation reminds the church leadership, members of faith communities and all relevant stakeholders of their responsibilities to God-given gift of water. Both the Old and New Testament understanding of justice as taking the side of the poor and oppressed, and also seeking to compel us to action, i.e. to address the exploitative and oppressive systems that seek to hold the poor and their oppressive structures. We are inspired to strive for justice, each in our own place and according to our separate gifts. We are called to the struggle to make trade a means of sharing the bounty of the earth and the fruits of human labor, and to ensure that people’s rights to water is fully respected. The dissertation emphasizes that “water” is the source of life, a gift of nature and that it belongs to all living beings and the rest of creation. God who is the creator gives this right to everyone. It is not a private property but a common resource for the sustenance of all members of plant and animal kingdoms. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Focusing on the lived experiences of ten rural black women in a familial community in central North Carolina, this project documents the mundane and extraordinary events of their lives and how they create meaningful lives through storytelling. Theoretically grounded in black feminist thought, intersectionality theory and muted group theory the investigation calls for the use of storytelling and poetry to understand how rural black women experience, live, and communicate their lives. Merging the experiences of participants with the researcher, the study also considers the ethical implications of being an insider-outsider and offers suggestions for engaging in creative scholarship. The author uses a combination of various qualitative methods, including ethnography, participant observation, interactive interviewing and autoethnography, to better understand her experiences as a rural black woman. The author combines archival research about the community, personal reflections, field notes and interview transcripts, translating the data into stories about rural black women's lives. The study shows how the stories rural black women share, the secrets they hold, and the activities of their daily lives offer a window for understanding concrete lived experiences as communication experiences.

Faced with dynamic and rapidly deteriorating environmental conditions, the government of Mozambique has embarked on environmental education programmes and campaigns (EEPCs) as a strategy for natural resource management and environmental conservation. However, there is increasing evidence to suggest that the implementation of these EEPCs in local communities are often lacking when it comes to community participation and contribution. The latter has often been cited as a major reason for the limited success of such EEPCs. To date there is little research work that explores the issues on the integration of local community Knowledge and practices, and community reactions to such environmental education programmes and campaigns anywhere in the world. Mozambique, a developing country in Africa, is no exception to this trend of ignorance. This research investigated the extent to which local knowledge and practices are integrated into The EEPCs that are implemented by the government of Mozambique. The focus was on the local community’s perceptions, engagements and reactions to the EEPCs. The study was conducted in four districts of the Nampula province in Northern Mozambique. The data were collected through in-depth interviews, documentary analysis and non-participant observations. The findings of the study showed that there is a lack of substantial involvement by the local community in all stages of the development process of the EEPCs. Furthermore, the study found evidence of partial and /or unsuccessful implementation of the projects in all four communities studied. The research concluded by arguing that without such active involvement of the local people in planning, designing, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and decision-making processes of EEPCs, the frustrations of government officials and the lack of substantial implementation of the projects in the communities that were studied should not have come as a surprise. / Dissertation (MEd (Curriculum and Instructional Design and Development))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Curriculum Studies / MEd / unrestricted

No description available.

Background: While farmers' markets are a potential strategy to increase access to fruits and vegetables in rural areas, more information is needed regarding use of farmers' markets among rural residents. Thus, this study's purpose was to examine (1) socio-demographic characteristics of participants; (2) barriers and facilitators to farmers' market shopping in southern rural communities; and (3) associations between farmers' market use with fruit and vegetable consumption and body mass index (BMI). Methods. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted with a purposive sample of farmers' market customers and a representative sample of primary household food shoppers in eastern North Carolina (NC) and the Appalachian region of Kentucky (KY). Customers were interviewed using an intercept survey instrument at farmers' markets. Representative samples of primary food shoppers were identified via random digit dial (RDD) cellular phone and landline methods in counties that had at least one farmers' market. All questionnaires assessed socio-demographic characteristics, food shopping patterns, barriers to and facilitators of farmers' market shopping, fruit and vegetable consumption and self-reported height and weight. The main outcome measures were fruit and vegetable consumption and BMI. Descriptive statistics were used to examine socio-demographic characteristics, food shopping patterns, and barriers and facilitators to farmers' market shopping. Linear regression analyses were used to examine associations between farmers' market use with fruit and vegetable consumption and BMI, controlling for age, race, education, and gender. Results: Among farmers' market customers, 44% and 55% (NC and KY customers, respectively) reported shopping at a farmers' market at least weekly, compared to 16% and 18% of NC and KY RDD respondents. Frequently reported barriers to farmers' market shopping were market days and hours, "only come when I need something", extreme weather, and market location. Among the KY farmers' market customers and NC and KY RDD respondents, fruit and vegetable consumption was positively associated with use of farmers' markets. There were no associations between use of farmers' markets and BMI. Conclusions: Fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with farmers' market shopping. Thus, farmers' markets may be a viable method to increase population-level produce consumption.