the calm before the storm

January 22^nd

 

Oh right... we are here to work...

Last night after visiting both the schools we will be volunteering at, we came up with a tentative schedule.  Turns out we are going to be crazy busy!  What is especially great about our project here is that we are merely supporting what the community need is.  We are definitely not going in and lecturing on whatever we think should be said; it seems to truly be a collaboration with our local partners which is so very awesome.  

The YMCA Vocational School is comprised of over one hundred girls ages 16-24 and two very brave young men.  I think they will be able to teach Nolan (our only guy) how to survive surrounded by so much estrogen.  The principal there would like us to focus on employability skills as the youth will be graduating in their studied trade and many will be looking for work in the summer.  We have to develop 6 or 7 two-part workshops for them around specific employability skills including CV writing, interview skills, customer service, entrepreneurship and leadership.  We will be giving each of these workshops four times.

Because this is a vocational school with training for specific trades, there is less focus on health issues than in other curriculums. The last group here noticed some important knowledge gaps around HIV/AIDS and sexual reproductive health with these students, so we will be doing a few workshops on that, focusing on stigma reduction and busting the many myths that seem to pop up.

At the OIC (Opportunities Industrialization Centre) school, the last group presented on the Millennium Development Goals and from that the students started an Environmental Club.  Our job there will be to support the students to create events for the Club to do throughout the community and doing some teaching around the environment.  Should be great!

We also have two large events to plan – a job fair for youth to network and connect with employers and hopefully, an event for International Women’s Day on March 8.  I came knowing that we would be here for that holiday and hoping we could plan a community-wide event celebrating women.  We have a lot on our plates so let’s hope we can make it happen!

Workshops start Monday... I shall keep you posted on how they go!