Working with women and men, youths and children It is very important to work at all levels of the community and to integrate empowerment work with women and girls into a broader approach directed towards changing destructive gender relations. Therefore, it is useful to discuss gender relations jointly with men, women, youths and children. It is better to work with groups supported by peers who can listen carefully and who can understand the perspectives of their fellows. Exercise / ‘Fish bowl exercise on gender issues’ The group of men sit in a circle in the middle and the group of women sit in a circle around them (or the other way round). The inner group, that is, the men, discuss certain issues among themselves. The women just listen without interruption. After half an hour, the groups change places and the men listen to what the women say. Interesting questions could be: • What is the role of men and women in community healing? • What are the benefits of having women and men involved in community healing? Afterwards, the groups give feedback about what they heard, what was new to them, what was surprising, how they felt when listening to others, and how they felt when talking in front of the others. Figure 8: ‘It’s about getting heads in the same direction’ (source unknown) 82 Community Healing: A training manual for Zimbabwe