SAHA hosts final PAIA housing sector training

In keeping with SAHA's commitment  to empower communities by supporting and creating a greater awareness of past and contemporary struggles for justice, SAHA has successfully trained NGO's, CBO's and Individuals in the Housing sector to use the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) to access information.

Training on PAIA forms part of SAHA's programmatic work to target specific sectors, which were identified as being in dire need of ATI interventions in their daily struggles for freedom.The main aim of the training is to equip individuals within organisations with PAIA skills and expectantly they will transfer their skills to their constituency.

The training targeted organizations all over South Africa, with representation from six of the nine provinces.

The training sessions were broken down into three sessions. The first session included; an introduction to freedom of information (FOI) environment, focus on public bodies, forms used, when to use the forms, costs involved and case studies and actual requests made by participants.

The second session featured a recap of the first session, a review of the released material and focused on private bodies. The last session incorporated a review of the previous two sessions, a look at internal appeals in the case of public bodies as well as procedures to follow in that of private bodies.

Over the 6 month period, the group grew within the ATI environment. This was evident through the increased interest in the field and the increased confidence in putting through their requests in support of their work.

With results stemming from the responses received, the group was able to identify missing gaps to adequately address housing issues. 

Released records from this training are obtainable from SAHA's Freedom of information collection special project "Housing sector training".

To watch a video of what participants had to say about the training and how they will be using their newly acquired skill, go onto www.foip.saha.org.za