Dr. Salome Mbugua:

Regarding building a better society, and building trust and dealing with issues to the extent where we do not need to keep returning to them again, there is a definite need to work with the community. The community is key when it comes to engaging with the people experiencing issues on the ground. We have experienced this in my organisation, for example, when we had problems with where people were residing in residential areas. Naturally, getting the Garda to work with us as an organisation and then working with the people experiencing these problems, and with the community, was an approach that worked well to turn the problems around there. Therefore, this approach can work magic. It can also make our work much easier for all of us, instead of it being a case of having to assume that the Garda and whatever services will do their jobs without having to link up with the groups and organisations on the ground. It is important to approach issues in this way and it can help to solve most of the problems, and address them with more constancy, rather than just going through the motions and round and round and on and on again in this regard.