A local ACTIONAID fieldworker keeping the records for a Shomiti on Bhola Island, Bangladesh.

The two year action-research project was designed to test the use of PRA in adult literacy programmes in three very different contexts. This would enable us to observe the flexibility of the approach and would lead to various adaptations and innovations. The three pilot projects could not have been more diverse.

In Bundibugyo, Uganda the pilot was in a multilingual area where the main local language had never previously been written. In Bangladesh the pilot was with women's savings and credit groups in a conservative Islamic area and in El Salvador the pilot was with a grassroots NGO, COMUS (The United Communities of Usulutan -Comunidades Unidas de Usulutan) which is led by ex-guerrillas converting to peaceful methods after ten years in arms.