Stichting Connect International

Village Action Groups (VAG's) are groups with people from usually about 20 households in rural villages. They meet weekly or bi-weekly to discuss their problems, ideas, dreams, etc. and undertake action to improve things. The VAG's usually choose two or three VAG Leaders who are trained to facilitate the VAG meetings and support and coordinate the actions by their group. They also keep contact with the support organization, for instance through a system of community coaches. The VAG Leader manual should be used in conjunction with the fact sheets and fact sheet drawings which is explained in the manual (fact sheets and fact sheet drawings can also be found on and downloaded from this website).

The 18 page highly practical largely self-explanatory VAG leader manual explains VAG Leaders about their role and tasks (although in practice the manual is often used by trainers to train VAG Leaders during several one or two day training courses, and given as a reference manual to the VAG leaders). The manual also contains practical forms for reporting by a VAG about what they have done during the VAG meetings and the actions carried out as well as monitoring forms for numbers of products realized (e.g. numbers of latrines, dish racks, rubbish pits realized, etc.). The manual covers the following subjects:

Welcome
1 Tasks of the VAG leader
1.1 Facilitate VAG meetings
1.1.1 Prepare the VAG meeting
1.1.2 Facilitate the VAG meeting
1.1.3 Report about the VAG meeting
1.1.4 Follow up on VAG meetings
1.2 Assist with activities to improve things
1.3 Facilitate VAG review meetings
1.4 Take part in community review meetings
1.5 Take part in inter-community meetings
1.6 Take part in training courses
2 VAG Leader skills
2.1 Facilitation skills
2.2 Teaching skills
2.3 Learning skills
2.4 Planning skills

Also a Portuguese version of the VAG leader manuals is attached though this one is still in draft form.