Training.

Sometimes I forget what I have written about and what I haven’t so forgive me if this is a repeat. One of the projects that I have been helping with at my drop-in centers for the last several months is training, training, training! During my community needs assessment way back in 2010 (ugh, it’s been a long time), training was identified as a priority. Although the staff and volunteers at my centers work with children, they do not have any training about how to care for or really work with children so training definitely seemed like a viable project to pursue.


We were able to work with a South African donor to assist with this training project and last June we received funding to train almost 40 of our staff and volunteers. Since August, we have been bringing the staff and volunteers from the centres together for a monthly training workshop so they can learn about things like the basic rights of children, the difference between discipline and punishment, hygiene and nutrition for children, and the importance of letting children make mistakes in order to learn (i.e., trial and error learning)! For some of the women, it’s been quite a challenge as they haven’t been in a classroom setting for 20+ years (and their attention span is like that of small child!). They have also had to write their assessments in English (which is not easy for many of them) and learn new, and oftentimes challenging, concepts. Mostly, I have been quite pleased with their progress and willingness to try. I know it isn’t easy. In January, they will submit their assessments for review and (cross your fingers) most of them will pass and receive a basic child and youth care certification. And if they don’t pass?! Well, I hope they have at least benefited from being in the training and learning something about how to work with children. Through my time here I’ve come to believe that sometimes the learning is in the process not in the end result...

Here they are working on writing an assessment, eating lunch (believe me, this was an important part of the day) and one of our group photos in front of the church where we held the training.