• Conceptualise workshops as spaces in which participants can discuss how to integrate Western-based healing methods with local, ritual-focused methods. (This allows for colearning between development practitioners and participants and, as a result, the best insights from different cultural systems are adopted.) Participatory processes involving local communities and learning from traditional leaders help test ways of intermixing traditional and Western methods of healing and finding the right balance. According to Wessells and Monteiro (2004), community healing can occur through cultural reclamation and strengthening social structures and practices. Some of the experiences, such as colonialism, undermine traditional authority and cause inferiority complexes among local people. In such instances, there is a need for social healing so as to construct a bridge between the present and a positive future. COMMUNITY HEALING AND DEVELOPMENT (Brainstorming and lecture) Guiding questions (The facilitator should think of other questions over and above those listed below.) • How do you think development can aid community healing? • Give examples of development initiatives in your community that have helped community healing. • How can developmental initiatives best be implemented in order to promote community healing? Community healing and development within any given society are closely linked. Wounded communities might not develop at the same pace as those whose well-being is intact. The government of Zimbabwe often has programmes in place, such as the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) that seek to provide an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation of the people (Zim Asset, 2013). According to the United Nations (UN, 2009), the end of conflict tends to create high expectations for the delivery of concrete political, social and economic dividends. In order to build people’s confidence in post-conflict societies, it is important that at least some of these expectations are met. Rebuilding of physical infrastructure and the restoration of essential government functions that provide basic social services are crucial. According to Machakanja (2012, p. 1), policymakers are increasingly realising that a ‘democratic and developmental state cannot be created unless the grievances of the past are addressed’. Where conflict has occurred, developing local capacity can contribute to peace and development by establishing mechanisms for realising community goals that can breed community commitment (Maynard, 1995). Local capacity building can reduce chances of conflict recurring. 8 Community Healing: A training manual for Zimbabwe