Integrated approach replaces single interventions
| Having seen micro-credit alone give disappointing results, SUS initiated a more comprehensive approach working with different social units in a village. Up to now, results have been outstandingly positive. |
| The integrated development approach is a comprehensive holistic approach for sustainable development. The approach is based on a social development model which integrates social change theory and social learning theory. The model identifies the most important units of socialization as the family, school, peer group and community. Positive socialization is achieved when the community members have the opportunity to participate equally, prioritize problems together and to solve then with each unit being involved in the activities. When each unit is skilled enough to involve itself and knows how to interact with other units consistently, changes will take place.
To be able to sustain human development, it is necessary to maintain two positive changes, the conditional and the positional. Conditional change is always visible i.e. food, clothes and shelter. To sustain these positive conditional changes, economic mobilization is needed in order to create possibility for access to income. To sustain conditional change positional change is needed too i.e. education, health, rights and gender justice, good governance, transparency and accountability. Because knowledge is power which helps people to increase their potential, capacity and confidence to raising their voice for their own and others’ rights and dignity. In this way, a united force through community participation, rights based perception and integration with relevant interventions helps to establish real sustainable development. A typical project in a village might consist of a food security programme, with micro-credit, to help women improve their own food production and create surplus to sell at market. Loans can be used for seeds, chickens, goats, etc. Training can be offered to help the family plan for more income-generating activities for example the purchase of a rickshaw. In Kendoa village for example, SUS has run programmes around reproductive health for young women, created an adolescent forum for school drop-outs and organised education for the youngest. They also run a human justice and rights watch to ensure that villagers get the service and justice they are entitled to according to the law.
These historical snapshots commemorate 30 years of SUS
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