SOME local organizations across the country have been trained on approaches of mobilizing support for their areas in order to help solve community challenges and get support from people in communities.

The focus was to remind the organizations to ensure that local communities realize that they have the power in their hands to solve local challenges and have sense of ownership on projects on the ground.

The five days training held in Dodoma and involved 25 participants was organized by the Foundation for Civil Society (FCS), with the support of the Change the Game Academy (CtGA) with the aim to empower them to mobilise resources locally.

Speaking on the sidelines of the capacity building training, Neil Nagala, FCS programme Support Officer, said the aim was to provide local organizations with ways and skills on new perceptions on mobilizing support.

He said through the training, local organizations are able to gain a variety of options that can help to stimulate peer learning and experience sharing among members of various organizations.

Fredrick Alex, Trainer on Mobilizing Support, noted that it is important for organizations to gain knowledge on how to do advocacy at the project areas and get support from the local communities.

He added that the training was also to help the organizations not to continue depending on external donors or development partners while they can gain support locally and solve problems facing people.

“Aim of the training is to enable participants to mobilize support from the government, individuals, decision makers and other stakeholders who can participate in helping solve problems” he said.

He said they were empowered on problem analysis, solution analysis and stakeholders’ analysis and techniques for advocacy.

According to the trainer, the expectation include change of perception from the participants on how tackle facing the community, collaboration with the government and other stakeholders in effort to see how solve community problems together.

One of the participants, Peter Masoi, from Arusha-based Agro-Support Organization, commenting the training noted that capacity building on mobilizing support was very handy.

“We have realized how to improve engagement with other stakeholders in our project areas and beyond” he said, adding that it is important to let people on the ground develop sense of   ownership in the projects too.

Happy Augustine from the Tanzania Health and Social Services (THSS) also noted that she managed to realize the gaps in mobilizing support within her organization.

“Local NGOs  need more of such capacity building training to enable them operate effectively and let people understand what they can do to solve problems in the communities” she noted.

She also argued that sustainability of projects is very important and that organizations should shift from donor dependency and seek funding locally through different ways.