has been done for facilitators on how to deal with situations that may arise. Relevant tools must be made available for the Commission before they embark on an outreach programme. Translators, interpreters, counselors,\ rapporteurs, security officers are all an important part of an outreach team that must undergo thorough capacity building to ensure that they are on top of the situation. 2.7 Tools for public participation An opportunity for participation is useless without the tools that facilitate effective and meaningful participation. There are a variety of techniques available to ensure meaningful participation of the public in the NPRC processes. The process should begin with publicity. The commission must equip the public with all the necessary background information about the NPRC, the commissioners, its laws and its regulations. Information must be supplied in the languages that communities understand. The public broadcaster, community radio stations and newspapers are essential resources for empowering communities for effective participation. During the NPRC Bill public hearings, Parliamentarians arrived at meetings to talk about the NPRC Bill to people who had never seen that Bill. In some cases, few copies of the Bill were distributed at the meeting and participants complained that the documents were written in the languages that they did not understand. This caused tension and frustration. For the NPRC, information must be packaged explaining what the NPRC is, what laws support it, who are the commissioners, and how the public can interact with the Commission before and after the meeting, where to find their offices among other things. The information must be packaged in simple language that the people can understand. It is important that before the NPRC comes to a community, there be deployed sensitization missions that merely do publicity. Colleges, schools and churches are perfect avenues for such sensitization missions. The best people to use for such publicity are the local community leaders resident in such areas. 2.8 Co-planning of Outreach Meetings and Publicity Programmes with Local Communities Zimbabwe is a highly centralized state with everything done in Harare then transmitted everywhere. This culture has poisoned the running of programmes that require public participation. The NPRC must not fall into 5 THE CODE OF INCLUSION