At Praxis, we have shaped an immersion programme, called Insight, which is envisaged as a spontaneous learning process to facilitate policy makers, implementers and advocates to dialogue with communities to enrich their knowledge and understanding. Unlike an orientation or a study visit, the immersion programme requires participants to be a complete part of the lives of their host families and communities during the period of the stay.
An immersion is a guided, total experience in which a participant spends a number of days fully immersed in the daily realities of poor people from the developing world.
What is an immersion?
How is an immersion different from a field visit?
An immersion is a much deeper and more powerful experience than any field visit. It has structured days of stay with the family/community including participating in their daily activities. It is also a powerful way for policy makers and practitioners to understand the realities of poor and excluded people as well as experience the impact of social policies on their lives.
Why Immersion?
Immersions provide an opportunity to development practitioners to keep themselves up to date with real situations of poor people. It offers an added value that other forms of learning do not provide:
How does it work
There is no single model or blueprint for immersion. The experience built so far is, in fact, quite diverse depending on the organisation, local context, however, an immersion should be open, voluntary and based on a personal ground. Immersees should be ready to abandon their professional roles and overcome personal bias in order to see things from a different perspective, that of the insiders.
Concretely, participants are expected to take full part in the lives of their hosts, help them in their daily tasks and interact with them and the community so as to understand their living conditions and the dynamics, which affect them.
Do you want to know more?
Write to us here with INSIGHT in the subject line. |
Quick Links
For information related to Research and Capacity Building For information or collaboration related to Communication
|