Last Thursday (August 4th) we had the first adult workshop, led by the vice president of the foundation who is also a psychologist. This past Tuesday we had the first youth workshop, led by the other psychologist we've been working with. Together they prepared a power point to guide the sessions, defining various forms of violence, where they come from, and how to identify them. We discussed personal experiences, and the participants were incredibly open. It was clear that they were motivated to learn more and to put this information into practice. The youth session was even more interactive than that of the adults, so that they could really understand the important nuances of the terms and relate the sometimes difficult information to their own lives. As the workshops continue we will dig deeper into more specific themes and give resources for reporting incidents, but these first workshops were dedicated to creating a solid basis of information and piquing their interest.
Because the sustainability of this project is of the utmost importance, Annette and I have taken a backseat on many of the preparations. In doing this it will ensure that the members of the foundation are fully equipped to continue preparing and running the workshops after we leave in two weeks. Thus, we have a bit of extra time on our hands. Besides attending the workshops we have also been working on creating concise training materials for the university volunteers that we had planned on doing earlier in the summer. It will include a brief overview of child development, strategies for working with children, and specific expectations of this daycare. Hopefully with this training the volunteers will be more effective in teaching and supervising the children so the two teachers can focus themselves more fully on the curriculum and other necessities of the program. In this way, the foundation will be able to grow in many ways - from the actual daily running of the daycare to the larger impact it has on families in the community.
We can't wait to see how the workshops continue in these next weeks and to hear about them far into the future. However, one thing is already clear: all our efforts this past year were worth it.
The last day of the daycare before the August vacation
The first workshop
