Sector: Public Health
PD Practitioner: Peace Corps Volunteer
Location: Mali
The Positive Deviance approach is perfect for Peace Corps Volunteers. Not only does it correspond with Peace Corps' philosophy, but volunteers have a whole two years to get to know and understand a community. We were told consistently how important the first year is, to have patience and learn about our community. However, as Americans, we are eager and feel restless when we are not doing. If we could only come up with a way to get volunteers to truly embrace that first year! My Health APCD (Assistant Peace Corps Director) gave us an "etude de milieux" to complete during the first 3 months. This was extremely helpful as it gave us work to do, a task to complete, as well as facilitating in our getting to know the community.
Positive Deviance and local practices
Reflecting on my experiences, the one thing that we must be mindful of is to not forget to look for local practices, which seems ridiculous as this is the whole point. But PCV's arrive in their village fresh from training where we are taught best practices and eager to share them all. Often, I got so caught up in trying to find the women that were immediately and exclusively breastfeeding, introducing foods at 6 months, washing their hands before eating, etc. that I often forgot to look for other solutions, local solutions. For example, there were many women who reported to me that they had exclusively breast-fed for anywhere between 9-18 months. I did observe a high number of these cases and even more interesting, these children were often the healthier ones. I still do not know why these children were healthier because I did not dig deep enough to search out the answers, instead I was looking for women doing what I already deemed to be a healthier behavior.
An agricultural volunteer may be looking for the person who is using the techniques the volunteer learned in training, when there may be someone who is using a technique that is even better suited to the community. I started planting Moringa trees and a few months later found several compounds that already had healthy and vibrant Moringa. One man was using it as live fencing. Here was a Positive Deviant, whom I could have worked with to multiply the number of Moringa trees that existed in the community.
A volunteer may be working with a very talented tailor. He wants to export his work, however he does not even keep records of what he has bought and sold. He does not understand that to begin exporting will take time and is a process. The volunteer could take him to visit with someone who is already exporting, someone who has done it from the beginning on their own.
For many PCV's, behavior change is all they do whether it is agriculture, health or business related. If we gave behavior change more focus during training, perhaps volunteers would not get as discouraged because they would start with more realistic expectations. It would also help give volunteers perspective.
Positive Deviance and Volunteer Satisfaction
I was in a health center one day that was implementing a supplementary feeding program. Nothing they were doing made sense. It was a combination of motivation and misunderstanding. I was starting to get visibly frustrated and then I remembered positive deviance. I thought to myself, 'Wait a minute, instead of continuing to tell them how they are doing it wrong, why don't I take them and show them someone who is doing it right?' Someone who is on their level, i.e., someone who has had the same training, receives the same salary, and has the same demands placed on them every day. There is one health center worker, Madame Cherif, who is exceptional. She is enthusiastic, she does everything correctly, she gives nutritional advice to women that come to the health center and she always goes the extra mile even if it is out of her way. I took the two health center staff that did not understand protocol to see Madame Cherif in action. It worked out wonderfully! I avoided being discouraged with the staff, the staff learned a whole lot and Madame Cherif felt a huge sense of pride in her work.
Finally, using the Positive Deviance approach can be highly rewarding for a volunteer. During my service, I have worked both with supplementary feeding programs and the PD/Hearth approach. I enjoy my work with the supplementary feeding programs and I do think that the supplementary feeding programs help in the moment, the more amount of time that a child is healthy in her developmental years is important. However, it is my work with PD/Hearth that makes me really proud of my service. I know that through my PD/Hearth work I left something truly lasting: knowledge, knowledge that built upon what already existed. There were many mothers who were really proud after the Hearth, they could see the change it made in their child and they knew they (and their local ingredients!) made it happen. I am certain that those same mothers are passing on that knowledge to other mothers and it makes me happy to know that our (The community members who made the Hearth happen, Catholic Relief Services' staff, and myself) work continues.