Africa Book Development Organisation (ABDO) is a registered Non-Profit Making Organization which operated as a trust since 1996. It was then re-registered under the PVO Act in 2005, Reg No 39/05. ABDO operates in five provinces in Zimbabwe to promote community education and empowerment in an effort to improve the livelihoods of marginalized rural people. ABDO believes in a bottom-up participatory approach where local people are viewed as subjects (and not objects) of their development and are therefore, fully involved in the process of designing, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects.
ABDO'S Transformational Approach To Development Bears Fruits
It started with 4 study circle groups of ten each. Comprised mainly of women, these study circles were transformed into action groups using training for transformation methodology which encourages dialogue, action and reflection (praxis). The groups were engaged in income generating projects such as poultry, piggery, candle making and gardening. Together with the facilitation of ABDO, the community thought of embarking on a bigger project that could improve their children's educational learning environment. ABDO'S step by step facilitation and facilitation saw the community constructing 2 by 2 classroom blocks to accommodate the Form 1 to 4 pupils at the school in 12 months.
ABDO's enterprising coordination and mobilization helped communities, on one hand, to gather all the locally found materials such as bricks, river and pit sand, and the council provide transport for these materials to be ferried to the site. For the first time the local authority and the local community worked together and thus their relationship improved. Community cohesion and unity of purpose greatly improved. On 25th of January 2017, it was joyous and jubilation at the official handover of the school to the community.