Our journey to Masuga started on the 6th June 2012 from Bauchi, Nigeria. The journey of about 10 hours was very tiring; the most part of the journey was on roads marked with many potholes. We got to Minna the capital city of Niger state and passed the night to cut the distance of the journey. There in Minna, we met with Rev. Fr. Tommy Hayden a Priest of Saint Patricks Missionary Society and proceeded together to Masuga.
If you are a regular reader of our updates, you will be conversant with Fr. Tommy, because, severally we have mentioned him and how he supports our Programme. Tommy is one of the resource persons of the programme and also one of the Co-originators of the SELL Programme. Currently, he works in Lagos.
The SELL Programme in Masuga was delivered in Hausa language. The three of us (Tommy, Moses and I) did the facilitation. Like I said earlier, we delivered the 6 units of the SELL Programme. The 6 units are: Self Awareness; Leadership; Justice; Peace Building; Community Building and Wisdom of Traditions.
The group was very engaging; we worked for six hours each day. In the course of the work, they got new understanding on so many issues. Some of the insights they got were on how to care for their children and educate them on their sexuality. The discussion on gender was a critical one, we challenged the men in the group to participate and support their wives with some of the roles they do. During an exercise called ‘Triple Burden of Women’ most men saw that their wives and daughters were carrying the most part of the work in the home. On our part the facilitators, we saw the impact of the Process on the men; men in the group started supporting their wives to care for the children while the programme was still on.
Another great learning for them was on trust. That you don’t have to trust everyone but we need to trust someone. That when you trust someone you will be able to share your thoughts, concerns and worries with that person, tied to that they understood that by sharing with people you trust you are lighting the burden on yourself and giving room for growth.
Some participants said during the workshop evaluation that they have acquired some good skills of questioning and listening. On a general note, working with the group was very interesting, we remain thankful to Tommy for making the contacts for us to work with that group and to the group too for their openness in sharing.
After the work at Masuga, we came back to Bauchi on the 18th June, 2012 and continued with other work.
Maria Dagogot,
Communication Desk, SELL