Leo and Moses went to Maiduguri, Yola and Jalingo Dioceses on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively to complete the selection of Facilitators for the SELL provincial training. At Maiduguri, the duo was warmly received by the Youth Chaplain of the diocese Rev. Fr. Sabastine Skom. He presented 11 Young Adults as candidates for the selection exercise. At the end of the process, 4 candidates (1 female and 3 male) emerged successful.
At Yola, Rev. Fr. Charles Danboyi the Youth Chaplain of the diocese welcomed the Team happily and indicated his desire to participate in the provincial training himself. He presented 10 candidates for the interview out of which 2 male and 2 female emerged successful.
When the Team got to Jalingo, the diocesan CYON president, Victor Kamai received the Team on behalf of the Chaplain Fr. Anthony Hanya who joined the Team Later before the selection begun. A very interesting thing happen at this point as the Chaplain (Fr. Anthony) took part fully in the selection interview as a candidate. By this very act he indicated his sincere desire to be part of the provincial training. Like other dioceses, all the candidates presented were very qualified to be part of the training, but due to limited resources, 3 male candidates were selected. The female candidate that was presented alongside could not be selected as she has just gained admission to study at one of the nations Polytechnic. Therefore, the Team decided that the Chaplain should seek for a female from the diocese to join the 3 males selected from the diocese.
The SELL Team is grateful to all the chaplains and candidates for their cooperation. On Monday the 1st of March, the Team left Jalingo at 6:15am and arrived Bauchi at about 1:30pm. On the whole, the Journey covered over 1,600km crossing four states of Nigeria and most part of the journey was on bad roads.
Jonathan and Maria made up the other team and made their way to Postikum were they delivered the SELL workshop unit on Personal Growth with the youths of St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Potiskum. This is the first time the SELL workshop is delivered in that parish. The young adults that attended were very enthusiastic about the issues discussed. They saw the development of oneself as an integral part of the journey of life. The Personal Growth Unit challenged them to be assertive in their decisions and in choosing their friends.
One particular tool that is used in this unit of the SELL Programme is the Joharis Window. The emphasis here is placed on the need for us to strive to be open and free in our everyday relationship with people. While it may not be possible to be completely open with everybody we meet, the invitation at the end of the workshop was that we should have trustworthy people in our lives in whom we can confide.
The youths also said they found the sexual health component of the unit very interesting,as sexual health is a subject everyone should have knowledge about, yet it is still the least talked about in our society. In all, a total of 30 persons participated actively in the workshop.
Coming up this weekend is a workshop in Billiri community in Gombe State on the leadership unit of the SELL Programme. The workshop will be facilitated by Moses and Maria. Please stay with us in this space for updates and more.
Maria and Moses
For the SELL Team.