When I first went to South Africa in 2002 & 2003, it was to take part in an international training programme organised by the founders of Training for Transformation (TfT), Anne Hope and Sally Timmel and their colleagues at the Grail. I had met Sally and Anne in Dublin in 2000 at a gathering organised by Partners, the only organisation in Western Europe that then delivered and promoted the Training for Transformation approach. TfT originated in Kenya in 1973. In the following 3 decades, thousands of people across Africa, Asia and Latin America had been trained in the methodology and developed radical community projects as a result. The TfT manuals have sold over 70,000 copies and are thought to be translated in several different languages. In Europe the approach is much less known (although community educators in Britain come across it during their training). The Irish picked up on it through their missionary work in Africa. More recently it’s been introduced in Eastern Europe under the name of DELTA.

One thing that emerged from the Dublin gathering was the need to train a new generation of TfT facilitators as the methodology had somehow lost its teeth since it started in the 70s. As a Rwandan woman said, “we have learnt the method four or five generations removed from the original source. We need a clearer understanding and refreshed skills to make community consciousness and self-reliance effective again.”  The need for new leadership in an increasingly unjust and globalised world was clearly identified and the methodology was still seen as fresh & relevant as 30 years ago.

In 2002-2003 a pilot training programme was held in South Africa with 36 participants from 12 countries. I was immensely privileged to be part of it and what I learnt there has informed and deepened my practice ever since. 3 other ‘advanced’ programmes have taken place in Kleinmond (100kms East of Cape Town) where the Grail owns a training & conference centre. I believe the international training is now delivered by the Institute for Social Transformation led by Thelma Awori and her team in Uganda.