NARRATIVE REPORT

Participants: 12 women from B. Hithaadhu

Facilitators: Shiyama Anwar & Thoma A. Samad

Executive summary: A workshop conducted to empower women to take part in Women’s Committee was organized through a UNDP funded project by a local NGO, HIDA. The target audience for this workshop is women of B. Hithaadhu.  The participants were selected by the island NGO.Since designing and implementing training programs to empower women and other stakeholders is an area that SHE works on, the invitation to collaborate with the project was accepted by providing facilitators and leaflets.

Implementation of training

Timeframe: Sessions were held on 13^th, 14^th & 15^th October 2011.

Venue: B.Hithaadhoo School.

Participants: 13 women

Training goals and objectives

Training Goal: The overall goal of the sessions conducted by SHE facilitators was aimed to help participants to deepen understanding, motivation and responsibility with regard to improve self development, so that the women can work in the development of other women in the community.

Training objectives: The sessions concentrated on the development of skills essential for self development such as effective communication, anger management, assertiveness, building self-esteem and inculcating self awareness, and awareness on GBV. The sessions also focussed on the importance of team work and skills such as, decision making, goal setting and conflict resolution was highlighted. It is expected that the program would facilitate the participants in:

• Developing communication skills
• Improving self esteem and learning positive ways to increase self-esteem
• Resolving conflicts fairly by using techniques of solving problems and making decisions.
• Helping them build healthy relationships, maintain and improve relationships
• Helping them identify some areas that needs to be improved at community level and at home and come up with plans  to work toward in achieving these goals

Training Methodology

The training sessions adopted the concept of adult learning and used combination of training methods which included the following:

• Experiential learning to share information views and also draw upon experiences of participants.
• Group work on case scenarios that illustrate common situations that requires usage of life skills.
• Role-plays to reinforce important concepts of life skills.

Training strategies used in the training:

Visual Aids

Visuals aids were used to highlight oral presentations or points.  For examples, key points noted on the flipchart and questions and statements for discussion.

Presentation

Participants were asked to present key points using flip charts and other visual aids. These include presentation of:

• Individual/group exercise handouts which trainees complete,
• Group work / discussions
• Large Group Discussions

At the end of every session large group discussions were held by asking specific questions or giving statements. Some of the advantages were:

• the participants were active, which stimulate interest
•  the facilitators were able to evaluate the participants’ understanding and absorption of learning
• Small Group Discussions

These were usually groups of 3 to 4.  Some of the advantages were:

• participants had more opportunity to talk
• more conducive to a discussion of feelings
• more ideas come from the group

Role-play

Role-plays were organised to play the parts of identified people and act out a scene.  It was very useful when practising skills, and for exploring how people react in specific situations.  Role-play had the following advantages:

• provided practical preparation for genuine situations
• the participants were able to experience activities and to relate theory to practice
  

Constraints

Overall the training sessions ran smoothly, except for the loss of some sessions to one or two participants. 

Evaluation

• At the end of the training sessions participants were asked to provide feedback. Following are various comments offered by participants:
• “I appreciate the friendly atmosphere created by the facilitators and enjoyed the activities in the sessions”
• “I learned the importance of effective communication, leadership skills and the importance of planning to reach a goal.”
• “I discovered a way to control my anger.”
• “I learned what self esteem is and how important it is.”
• “I understood the importance of being assertive when involved in community work.”
• Most of the participants wrote in the feedback form that they wanted more time.
  

Recommendations

It is recommended that:

• Provide additional supportive training or refresher sessions in future.
• Provide additional content training on the various subjects covered in the sessions.

 

FINANCIAL REPORT

No	Detail	Allocated Budget in APB 2011 (MRF)	Estimated Budget (MRF)	Actual (MRF)			Variance (MRF)	Reasons for Variance
				SHE	IPPF	Other
1	Taxi Fare	00.00	80.00	80.00	00.00	00.00
	Total	00.00	80.00	80.00	00.00	00.00