Activities of the ECHOES III project continued on the month of July in the five communities of Nkorang, Hiawu Besease, kobeng Seidi and Asakraka. The objectives of the project still remain the following;
To strengthen community participation in education.
To establish community wide reading and literacy initiatives.
To improve reading outcomes for children activities.
ACTIVITIES
Adult literacy and OST facilitator Refresher Training
Monitoring
Preventive Child sexual Assault programme.
ADULT LITERACY AND OST FACILITATOR REFRESHER TRAINING
The refresher training in capacity building was organized for the various facilitators of the five respective project community schools of Nkorang,Kobeng,Seidi,Asakraka and Hiawu Besease.
The objectives of the refresher training are as follows:
Share field experiences
Facilitators should refresh themselves on NFE Techniques
Practised facilitation using NFE techniques.
The training was held at the Bunso Cocoa College at Bunso and it lasted for six days. That is from 2nd July 2013-7th July 2013.It was facilitated by the project staff of World Education Ghana. Which include MacGeorge Baidoo, Reinhard Avenor , Dorcas Adwoa Aidu among others.
In all 30 facilitators from the various organisations in ECHOES Projects turn out for the training. Apart from this, three representatives from the various organisation of the ECHOES project were present of which Light for Children was not an exception. During the training, discussions was held on the following.
What went on well about the ECHOES Project
What need to be done or improve upon
Challenges faced as Facilitators
Methodological challenges faced by facilitators.
NFE Techniques
How to prepare Lesson notes
ASAKRAKA:
The OST class is now maintaining thirty five children but with occasional fluctuation in attendance which is between seventeen (17) and twelve (12) children.
The same applies to the adult literacy with its current permanent number of twenty thirty (30) adults.
HIAWU BESEASE:
The adult literacy class with its current core membership of twenty eight is doing well and the OST class is now maintaining number of twelve permanent children.
NKORANG:
The OST class is maintaining its membership of eleven (11) children.
However, the Adult literacy class is also going along with twenty nine (29) members.
SEIDI:
The Adult literacy is also maintaining its fifteen (15) permanent adults averagely per attendance.
The OST is still very poor in that community. That is eight children.
CHALLENGES:
The challenges still remain as;
Lack of lighting facilities in the evening for the conducting of the classes.
Sometimes, social gathering like funerals affect classes conducted on weekends. Thus, the children sometimes prefer going to the funeral as a form of entertainment than rather than coming for the classes.
PREVENTIVE CHILD SEXUAL ASSAULT WORKSHOP.
In our quest to reduce the incidence of child abuse cases in Ghana and to mitigate the effect of this heinous crime, LIFOC from the month of June 2013- July 2013 embark on the annually sexual Assault workshop with the social sciences department students in the Honk Kong University (HKU). And as at June 2013-July 2013, the number of schools our trained staffs and volunteers from the HKU reached within the Kumasi metropolis through our educative sexual assault workshop was 22. The workshop seeks to create awareness among school children on this menace, educate them on how to prevent themselves from this abuse and eventually to sensitize them on the help lines and support systems that are available for victims who report their ordeals to the appropriate authorities of which Light for Children is not an exception.
SOCIALIZATION MEETING
As part of Light for Children care and support activities, our monthly socialization meeting came on in the month of July 2013 at the Kumasi Cultural Center. This monthly meetings are organized to bring together all the affected and infected children, their caregivers, the staff of the organization and its volunteers/interns. The meeting also offers a platform for the caregivers to bring forward concerns and issues and is discussed in order to find solutions. Also to break the cycle of stigmatization and discrimination related to HIV/AIDS, the staff of Light for Children, the children and their caregivers, and the volunteers share lunch together, after having playtime with the volunteers.
MacGeorge Baidoo (world Education Ghana) writing the objectives of the workshop/training on the flipchart to alert the trainees the reasons for the refresher training.
A group discussion by trainees to fish out the challenges faced as facilitators of ECHOES III project.
Adult facilitator at Hiawu Besease (Mr. John Kennedy) teaching his colleagues trainees how he facilitated mathematics lessons in Adult literacy class his community.
A facilitator demonstrating how he facilitated reading topics to his colleague trainees.
A picture of trainees at the OST section of the facilitators refreshing training workshop at Bunso Cocoa College.