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T4a: Daily Activity schedule - community
t4b: Animal Daily Activity Schedule
T4a: Daily Activity Schedule - Community
A daily activity schedule is a chart showing how animal-owning families spend their time, including the time of day that each activity takes place and the time it takes to complete each one. This exercise identifies important times of the day, for example times when people are busy working, when they spend time with their working animals, or when they are free to discuss their common problems. This activity can be used to initiate a discussion about the best times to plan animal welfare activities, to hold a community meeting or for you (the facilitator) to visit the community. Step-by-step guidance for conducting this activity is provided in relation to daily activity schedules for both people and animals.
| Tool purpose: | Time needed: |
| • To understand which activities, take up the most and least time • To identify the best time to meet with individuals and community members and times when they are not available. • To identify who cares for the animals in each household and in what capacity. • To identify times when individuals are overburdened and why. • To identify potential opportunities for sharing or shifting workloads of men, women, and other family members to improve the well-being of people and animals. | 1.5-2 hours |
| Materials needed: | |
| Chart paper and markers or using sticks, stones, straw, local resources |
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase:
Initiation Phase, Implementation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities:
Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning
Project Support:
Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment, Gender Analysis
Daily activity schedule of the animal-owning community
This chart (Figure T4A) explores and compares how animal owners, users and carers spend their work and leisure time. This exercise is a useful, non-threatening exercise that looks at real life experiences and helps people to understand the roles and responsibilities of different family members towards their animals. It can be used to analyse the factors that influence different people’s roles and activities, and to understand the problems and obstacles faced when dealing with animals.
Figure T4 Daily Activity Schedule of an animal-owning community
In this exercise (Figure T4a above), men, women and children listed all their activities between getting up at 5am and going to bed at 9pm.
- Women start cleaning the animals’ shelter, preparing the morning meal and fetching water with the children between 5 and 7am.
- Men and children pray between 5 and 7am.
- Men take the animal out to work at 9am.
- Women are involved in feeding, watering and cleaning up after animals several times a day, while men are involved with their animal only between 9am and 2pm and at 8pm for a final feed.
- Children clean the animals’ shelter between 3 and 6pm.
- Men are the main income generators and users of the animals, whilst women participate in alternative income generating activities at the market.
This initiated a discussion about the roles and responsibilities of family members in caring for the animals and how some responsibility might be shifted to men.
| Daily Activity Schedule of the Animal-Owning Community | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Start by explaining the purpose of exercise to the participants and agree whose daily activities to chart first. This can be the animal owner/carer or members of the owner’s family. Agree whether to make a circular clock or a line chart to represent time. Decide whether to show time in hours or as parts of the day, such as morning, afternoon, and evening. The example above provides a numeric representation of time. Show daily activities using symbols placed at the appropriate time of day. |
| Step 2 | Start a discussion about the activities that a person or a group of people normally do, from when they get up in the morning until they go to sleep. Ask participants to list the activities in ascending order from morning to night. Key points might include: • Free time and work time • Times when animals are fed, or the animal shelter is cleaned • When animals are taken for grazing • When animals are offered feed and water • When people groom or clean animals |
| Step 3 | Ask when people have free time to take part in other activities, either individually or as a group. • How is other/spare time spent? Do they have spare time? • What are other income generating activities and how much time is spent on those? • What social activities should be included in the list? |
| Step 4 | Once daily schedules are complete, discuss results with participants. Consider these questions: • How do participants feel about the way they use their time throughout the day? • Why are some people responsible for some tasks while others are responsible for others? • Which periods are busiest or most stressful? Why? • Which activities are most important for meeting the needs of the household? The animal? Why? • Are any activities felt to be very burdensome? Why? • Are there any ways in which some activities could be made easier? If feasible, bring the two groups back together to discuss any differences in perceived division of daily activities of different people in the two charts. Summarize the results of the activity and discussion and ask participants to reflect on what they learned through this activity. |
| Step 5 | Once the activity is complete, take a photo or record of the chart on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning. Add any notes regarding when people are available (men, women, children, all) in your project action tracker. |
Facilitator’s notes: Daily activity schedule – animal-owning community
- Daily activity charts are best made by individuals and small groups, so divide up larger groups to make charts for different people, such as men, women and children.
- Encourage men and women to create separate charts to enable comparison of perceptions of each other’s daily activities. This will help with identifying the best time to plan community visits with men, women and/or both.
- Remember that you are not controlling the exercise. Give confidence to people so that they gradually take over the entire process themselves.
- You might want to discuss how daily routines change depending on the time of the week or the season.
Next Steps
- As part of rapport building stage in the initiation phase, the daily activity schedule might follow on with one of the following activities:
- T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
- T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
- T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community.
- T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
- As part of a community needs assessment and shared vision, the daily activity schedule for the animal-owning community might accompany one or more of the following tools to get a full picture of community dynamics and needs for project planning:
- T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
- T2 Mobility Map to understand where people spend most of their time and how long it takes to get places
- T3 Venn Diagram (T3b Social Networking Venn Diagram) to identify key individuals, groups and actors perceived to be most important to people and their animals.
- T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
- T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community.
T4b: Animal Daily Activity Schedule
The chart produced in this version of the daily activity schedule illustrates how working animals spend their time, during both work periods and rest periods. It looks at a daily routine from the animal’s point of view and identifies where improvements to welfare could be made, such as increasing the time available to animals for rest, play or grazing. The animal’s daily activity schedule differs from the community’s schedule as it looks in-depth at how only the animals’ time is spent during the day, rather than humans.
| Tool purpose: | Time needed: |
| • To understand animals’ daily activities and promote understanding of ways it supports meeting their needs in terms of the five domains of welfare • To identify opportunities for improving animal welfare through husbandry and management practices | 1.5-2 hours |
| Materials needed: | |
| Chart paper and markers or using sticks, stones, straw, local resources |
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase:
Initiation Phase, Planning, Implementation
Approaches for Working With Communities:
Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Capability
Project Support:
Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics:
Animal Husbandry and Management; Animal Welfare, Feelings and Needs
Daily activity schedule of the animal
Figure T4B Daily activity schedule of the working animal
This daily activity schedule for animals (Figure T4B, above) was used to initiate a discussion on animal welfare issues amongst rural workers, who use their equine animals to generate income by transporting goods and people to markets and tourist places. The animals’ day starts with their feeding trough being cleaned at 6am, followed by being fed at 6am. The animals are harnessed to carts at 8am and start their work at the market at 8:30am. Water is offered between 11:30am and midday, and again at 5pm when the animals return home. A second feeding is offered after finishing work 6pm From 7 to 8pm animals are provided free time to graze and roll. They are groomed between 8 and 9pm and the last feed is given between 9 and 10pm.
| Daily Activity Schedule of the Animal | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Start by explaining the purpose of exercise and agree whether to make a circular clock or a line chart to represent time. Decide whether to show time in hours or as parts of the day, such as morning, afternoon, and evening. |
| Step 2 | Start a discussion about the activities that animals are involved in from morning to night. Ask them to list all the activities in order, both with them and other users. Show daily activities using symbols placed at the appropriate time of day. |
| Step 3 | Encourage participants to include some of the following activities in the animals’ daily activity schedule: • Resting and working time • When animals are taken for grazing • When animals are offered feed and water • When animals are groomed or cleaned • When animals can socialise with other animals • When animals can perform instinctive behaviours (e.g. rolling around) |
| Step 4 | Once the animals’ activity schedule is complete, discuss results with participants. Consider the following guiding questions: • What do participants think their animals feel about the activities they do throughout the day? • When do you think animals feel most hungry/thirsty? • Do animals have time to satisfy and engage in natural behaviours? (In natural environment or with other animals e.g. rolling, grazing/roaming, socializing) • Which activities are most important for meeting the animals’ needs? Why? • Which periods are considered as heavy workload or strenuous? • Are there some activities that could be made easier/less strenuous for the animal? Summarize the results of the activity and discussion and ask participants to reflect on what they learned through this activity. |
| Step 5 | Once the activity is complete, take a photo or record of the chart on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning. Add any important notes to your project action tracker. |
Facilitator’s notes: Daily activity schedule – animal-owning community
- Animals at one place of work may have different work types, so divide groups by animals’ work type to produce the daily activity schedules.
- Encourage men and women to create separate charts to enable comparison of perceptions of each other’s daily activities. This will help with identifying the best time to plan community visits with men, women and/or both.
- Remember that you are not controlling the exercise. Give confidence to people so that they gradually take over the entire process themselves.
- You might want to discuss how daily routines change depending on the time of the week or the season.
Next Steps
- As part of rapport building stage in the initiation phase, the daily activity schedule might follow on with one of the following activities:
- T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
- T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
- T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community.
- T7 Historical Timeline to learn which major past events community members perceive to be significant to working animals and people
- As part of a community needs assessment and shared vision, the daily activity schedule for the animal-owning community might accompany one or more of the following tools to get a full picture of community dynamics and needs for project planning:
- T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
- T2 Mobility Map to understand where people spend most of their time and how long it takes to get places
- T3 Venn Diagram (T3b Social Networking Venn Diagram) to identify key individuals, groups and actors perceived to be most important to people and their animals.
- T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities to understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour.
- T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify periods of scarcity and risk for the community.