A practical example.

A practical example.
The process of planning may seem complicated but in fact we all plan things all the time in our
daily lives- we just don’t write documents about them! Good planning is essential to the
success of your project and is worth every minute of time that you spend on it. Here is an
example of what a students association did to work out their action plan:
Set a clear aim
“We had worked on identifying the priorities in our community and decided that, in order to
combat discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS, our first step had to be to correct
misunderstandings about how HIV is transmitted and to get across that anyone can get infected.
We felt this was particularly good because it would also help young people to avoid infection
- and may even get us a little help with money from the university ”
Find out what the pre-project situation is, so that you can measure progress later.
“We knew that ‘baseline surveys’ or ‘needs assessment studies’ are used to identify where
things stand at the start of a project. We did not have resources for any formal studies.
Instead, we involved a group of students from different racial and social backgrounds,
both boys and girls, in carrying out a ‘listening survey’ around the university for one
week. They started discussions about HIV transmission wherever they saw a group of
students, and listened carefully to the different opinions. They made brief notes of each
discussion. We all met every evening to share our findings. We were amazed at how much we
learned!”
Be prepared to tackle the obstacles
“Through our student survey we found that, although most people knew that using condoms is
important to avoid infection, they were still confused about how HIV is and is not transmitted,
Key Steps in planning !
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and most were worried about having social contact with people with AIDS.
Many people, particularly women, felt that it was not socially acceptable to
ask questions.”