BWU THEORY OF INTERVENTION
MODE OF INTERVENTION
Individual Focused Development Approach (Affirmative Action)
Maslow’s Ladder of Human Needs
Every person needs each one of the things mentioned on the different steps of the ladder above. But some needs are more urgent than others. The physical needs are the most basic and the most urgent. Unless we have food, water, clothing and shelter it is very hard to think about anything else. But once the most basic needs are met, we turn our attention to the next level on the scale. If we remember moments in our lives when we have been really frightened we know how hard it was to concentrate on anything else at the time. And even when there is not acute fear, if we are insecure about the future, for ourselves or our families, we are preoccupied with worry.
Once we feel reasonably safe and secure we begin to consider how we can ensure that we really are loved and have a place in the community where we feel we belong. Our sense of self-respect and personal dignity depends on the sense of love and belonging, but also on the sense of independence, of confidence that we are making a worthwhile contribution in the world. And once all these needs are met it is normal to want to develop all the gifts and possibilities that are hidden within us.
All these needs are important and deeply a part of our God-given human nature. We should not regard some as higher and others as lower. Some are more urgent, but not more important than others. In special situations, the urgency of needs may be changed, as for instance in a liberation struggle for human rights and dignity when people leave those whom
they love and endure hunger and cold and even risk their lives to bring about change. We will never get people deeply involved in the struggle to transform their world unless we begin with the needs that they are experiencing most strongly at the time.
No one can meet all these needs for themselves. It is only in the community, with the help of others that we can meet our needs. All religions and all good governments are interested in building a society where it is possible for all people to meet the needs on each of these five levels.
Each cross-rung of the ladder shows that there is always, inevitably, a link between religion and government – either a positive link of support or one of challenge and confrontation. If religion does not challenge a bad government, it is in fact supporting and strengthening the existing situation.
MEANS OF INTERVENTION
Action Planning and Budgeting
1) PRACTICAL/HARD SKILLS
2) LIFE DISCIPLINE/SOFT SKILLS
INTERVENTION END RESULTS
1) Good Education
2) Good Health
3) Security/Safety
4) Innovation/Creativity
INDIVIDUAL FOCUSED DEVELOPMENT CYCLE
