Self awareness Training
Ibis has developed participatory communication techniques that aim to build self-esteem of HIV support group members so that People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) can have the confidence and overcome stigma and discrimination in their communities, and hereby create better lives for themselves, their families and their communities. Through this process, Ibis also sought to develop peer counseling capacity within HIV support groups.
PEACE has developed techniques for building emotional strength and self-esteem among PLWHA as part of a process that develops basic counseling capacity with HIV support groups, and thus the ability of support group members to challenge stigma and discrimination in their communities.
Given the complementarity between the two approaches, Ibis and PEACE has agreed to combine their respective approaches in order to provide a comprehensive methodology for the capacity building component of the Tusano project. The following was agreed:
· Ibis' AIDS and Me approach, which enables participants to personalize HIV and AIDS and to come up with individual and collective responses to the epidemic, would be foundation training for all support groups taking part in the project. This would incorporate a module on “Building Support Groups”, which would be developed collectively by Ibis and PEACE based on PEACE's previous training in this area and Ibis' experience of working with PLAWH support groups.
· PEACE would then pilot its techniques for building strength and self-esteem with groups in two locations (likely Walvis Bay and the far North). One pilot would be with a group of women, and the other group would be with a group of men. Meanwhile, Ibis would do Body Mapping – which also seeks to build self-esteem and emotional strength together with peer counselling techniques – with the remaining groups.
· PEACE and Ibis would conduct follow up visits and supervision with their respective groups.
· PEACE would provide basic counselling training to key members of all participating support groups who are seen during the preceding activities (PEACE Process and Body Mapping) to have an aptitude for counselling.
· Once this process of building self-esteem and counselling skills is complete, Ibis will then work with all support groups in the production and use of media for awareness raising and advocacy (training of Positive Speakers, video facilitation, production of video / photo diaries etc).
Thus PEACE plays a key role during two project phases which are:
Phase 1: Planning and implementation of ”PEACE Process” with participating PLWHA support group in Walvis Bay, a busy port city.
Phase 2: Training and supervision of lay counsellors from all PLWHA support groups participating in Tusano project.
Contents of the workshop aimed at building emotional strength & self-esteem
The training manual for the workshops with the following themes
· Women’s and men’s roles in society
· Recognising our resources and life experiences as women and men
· Thinking out of the gender box: which skills/work normally associated with the opposite sex would I like to learn?
· How can I use my existing skills and knowledge as a woman/man in support group activities and in my community generally?
· My roots, hurts/sorrows, grief, achievements, strengths, hopes and dreams
· Focus on strengths: How have I done so well in life?: Inner strengths, skills, knowledge and resources and outside resources/supports
· Cooperation: how do I operate as part of a team?
· Self-care
· Recognising and naming emotions: in home language and English
· Expressing emotions
· How to connect with other people:
- Community outreach/getting others interested in making use of skills I have gained
- Getting to know people more closely in a one to one situation/connecting with people when they come for assistance
· Learning to observe closely
· Public speaking
· Providing feedback to others in a constructive manner
· Affirming other people
Description of Phase 2
Training in basic counselling skills with some members of HIV support groups, especially in the north of the country. There are seven support groups, from Eheke, Oshakati, Rundu (2), Katima Mulilo, Walvis Bay and Windhoek. To ensure effective knowledge and skills transfer there will be three workshops over a period of approximately five months. Two groups of sixteen people will be trained.
Description of Activities undertaken to date
Activities
Material was prepared for three workshops which were conducted with PLWHA support group members attached to the Walvis Bay Multi-purpose Centre. The workshops took place 26-28 July 2006, 4-5 October 2006 and 22-23 November 2006 and were in each case facilitated by two persons. Three facilitators, two psychologists and a social worker who has a Masters degree in Adult Education conducted the workshops which were aimed at developing self awareness and self esteem of the participants. Participants completed evaluation questionnaires at the end of each workshop as well as a self esteem questionnaire at the end of the final workshop.
There was regular communication with staff at the Walvis Bay Multi-purpose Centre (WBMC) to make practical arrangements for the workshop and to discuss & clarify important issues e.g. the position of the future counsellors in relation to the WBMC. Regular contact between responsible PEACE and Ibis staff members ensured that the “PEACE process” could be adjusted where necessary and that issues pertaining to the Phase 2 of the project could be identified and addressed.
Outputs
Nineteen (19) persons participated in the first workshop, ten (10) in the second and eight (8) in the third.
Completed evaluation questionnaires for three workshops
Completed self esteem questionnaire of eight participants in last workshop
The training manual for the workshops with the following themes
· Women’s and men’s roles in society
· Recognising our resources and life experiences as women and men
· Thinking out of the gender box: which skills/work normally associated with the opposite sex would I like to learn?
· How can I use my existing skills and knowledge as a woman/man in support group activities and in my community generally?
· My roots, hurts/sorrows, grief, achievements, strengths, hopes and dreams
· Focus on strengths: How have I done so well in life?: Inner strengths, skills, knowledge and resources and outside resources/supports
· Cooperation: how do I operate as part of a team?
· Self-care
· Recognising and naming emotions: in home language and English
· Expressing emotions
· How to connect with other people:
- Community outreach/getting others interested in making use of skills I have gained
- Getting to know people more closely in a one to one situation/connecting with people when they come for assistance
· Learning to observe closely
· Public speaking
· Providing feedback to others in a constructive manner
· Affirming other people
Summary & Analysis of the results of the monitoring & evaluation process
Tools used for monitoring & evaluation
The “PEACE process” was structured as a series of workshops with substantial time periods in between workshops with the following aims:
· To let participants take part in a series of exercises and tasks, which progressively build self awareness & self esteem over a period of time;
· To give facilitators an opportunity for tracing the development of the participants, especially in respect of self awareness & self esteem, over time
To give an example, in the second and third workshops some tasks required participants to do role plays where they had to demonstrate certain skills e.g. listening and public speaking while the other group members observed. They received feedback from the group members after the “demonstration”. The facilitators made sure that the less confident participants had opportunities to do these exercises in a context of group cohesion and trust.
Thus, the progression of workshops and the opportunity this afforded to observe the development of the participants served as an important monitoring and evaluation tool. The evaluation questionnaires filled in by participants after each workshop as well as the self esteem questionnaire completed at the end of the final workshop also served as monitoring and evaluation tools as did the reports written by the facilitators after workshops 1 and 2. Lastly, the facilitators closely monitored the group process from day to day and from workshop to workshop, and made adjustments accordingly.
Summary & Analysis of results
Participation of group: generally the people who came for the workshops participated fully. In the first workshop some people were shy and participated more actively in small group activities, but this changed in a positive direction in subsequent workshops. The obligation to take care of a baby and illness hampered participation of two group members. The number of participants from one workshop to the next waned considerably. In view of the fact that participants evaluated the workshops very positively the reduction in participants can be understood as follows: i) mobility: one person left Walvis Bay; ii) priorities: two people had to attend to income generating activities; iii) expectations differed from the aims of workshop; iv) illness.
Motivation: Those who turned up for the workshops were interested and enthusiastic. For some participants motivation may have decreased as they understood that only some people would ultimately become counsellors and as they began to understand the requirements for becoming a counsellor, with the result that these people did not attend the workshops beyond the first one. By having three workshops the facilitators were enabled to obtain a good indication of who is really motivated to become a counsellor.
The structure of the process gave the facilitators a very good basis to evaluate who of the participants are most likely to be good counsellors.
In addition to the above the following results - gains made by the participants as judged by the facilitators through the progression of workshops - were attained:
a. Increased self awareness:
· of their own emotions
· of their own strengths and experiences and of how these could be potentially useful in their work as counsellors
· of how vital personal experiences (e.g. with failure) might impact on their work as counsellors
b. Increased awareness of possibilities they may have available to them outside narrow gender roles
c. Awareness that as prospective counsellors they cannot passively wait for clients, but have to actively do community outreach
d. More confidence about bringing their skills to people through community outreach
e. An understanding of the challenges they may face in reaching out
f. Practical steps for how to do community outreach and understanding of what the specific prerequisites and requirements are for doing community outreach
g. A beginning understanding of and ability to implement active listening
The participants filled in the Rosenberg Self-esteem scale after completion of the third workshop. Their scores ranged from 29 – 35. Scores for this questionnaire can be anywhere from 10-40 with higher scores indicating higher self esteem. Considering the scores of the participants one can cautiously interpret this to mean that they all show high levels of self esteem. Caution is called for because there are no norms available for the Namibian population.
Project Process and lessons learnt
Initially PEACE had planned four workshops, but after the second was completed it was clear that all the planned themes could be covered in three workshops. The openness of the responsible Ibis staff members to reducing the number of workshops helped ensure the meaningfulness of the process. It was decided that the one and a half days which had been budgeted for and were “left over” from this phase could be used in the second phase for supervision of the counsellors.
The meetings between PEACE and Ibis staff members were very important in identifying issues and for planning purposes. The provision by Ibis of an agenda rendered the meetings meaningful.
Communication did not filter 100 per cent from PEACE to the workshop participants and this will have to be addressed in future.
The workshop methodology played an important role in ensuring the interest and full participation of everyone involved. The use of art work to stimulate creative thinking worked well. Attempts to develop self confidence through exercises which, simultaneously would be of practical use to the participants, especially if they become counsellors e.g. doing public speaking on topics related to HIV/AIDS were appreciated by participants.
With respect to filling out the evaluation questionnaires, we realised that this process could have been more objective if participants were provided with an overview of all the themes covered to refresh their memories when responding to the question regarding to the lack of/usefulness of specific sessions.
PEACE staff involved in phase 1 relied rather heavily on their professional ability (as psychologists) to evaluate participants’ progress in terms of self awareness and self esteem. More objective indicators will have to be used in respect of the counsellor training.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Fortunately the responsible staff of the Walvis Bay Multi-purpose Centre took the initiative to arrange a meeting to address issues which arose. In view of the possibility that some partners might not be so pro-active it will be important in Phase 2 for Ibis and PEACE staff to initiate meetings. In this way everybody will have clarity about the process and there will be a platform for sorting out logistics, thus avoiding problems.
The success of Phase 2 of the project will in large part depend on the continued motivation of the counsellors, who will be volunteers. These volunteers may want some incentives and some resources e.g. taxi fares and phone credit to help them do their work. Furthermore, the counsellors will have to be tied into existing structures which will provide support and supervision. It will be vitally important to discuss these matters and to find practical solutions prior to the start of the counselling training.
Good information flow between PEACE and the prospective counsellors will have to be ensured. Information routes may differ depending on the capacity of the organisations to which the counsellors are, in a sense attached and their willingness to disseminate information. If specific partners accept the responsibility for disseminating information to prospective counsellors specific persons will need to be identified and their commitment obtained. Direct communication between PEACE and participants may be a better option.
It will be necessary to initiate a conversation with networks into which counsellors can be tied and from which they will be able to draw support in the future.
If translators are to be used in the future these will have to be briefed properly prior to the start of workshops to clear misunderstandings about their role.