Handvaardigheids- en kreatieweskeppingsprojekte : bemagtiging in die konteks van die deelnemende kommunikasieperspektief

Abstract

The Seboni Creativity Centre and Tsa Lapeng are examples of development projects that aim at empowering participants to become self-sustaining by acquiring hand skills through their participation in creative creation projects. These projects aimed at empowering approximately 8-10 women from the Ikageng community and that of Twarranang respectively with the aim of becoming entrepreneurs. The participants learn the basic skills of needlework and skills to start their own businesses (entrepreneurship) as well as how to put basic life skills to use in their everyday lives. Several theorists explain that development projects without participatory communication can rarely make development initiatives successful. Participants can only develop if they can take ownership of the project by also communicating with their project leaders in a participatory manner about their specific needs. The mere learning of skills does not ensure empowerment, so the participants must be allowed to function in a position of power so that they can take responsibility for their development. For the participant to function in a position of power, there should be a high level of participation in the projects. Participation however can be seen as an challenge due to the educational nature of the projects, the participants are learning from the project leaders therefore participation on the highest level is hard to reach. Empowerment communication is a process that brings about empowerment over time for sustainable development. Empowerment communication can be seen as a facilitator for the concepts of the participatory approach to ensuring empowerment that leads to sustainable development. Empowerment communication is thus a continuous process that facilitates and not an approach that is the outcome. In the current study it is argued that the relevant development projects will achieve empowerment and sustainability more effectively if empowerment communication is applied. The study aims to conceptualize empowerment communication by referring to the building blocks of the concept, namely participation, dialogue and cultural identity. The general research objective of this study is to determine whether arts, crafts and creative creation projects can contribute to empowerment. Qualitative research methods, namely semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participant observation, were used for this study to introduce a thorough investigation into the nature of empowerment communication between project leaders and participants of the relevant development projects. The purpose was to determine and interpret the perspectives on the empowerment communication of the parties in accordance with the normative theoretical principles of empowerment communication within the context of the participatory approach to development communication. It was found that the relevant development projects do comply with empowerment communication in some aspect but also have a short come in other aspects.