From last weekend to this week, the Sharing Education and Learning for Life (SELL) programme has experienced many activities which yielded good results and because of these, they consider it as one of their happy moments and will love it to happen again. For instance, Jonathan and Moses both members of the SELL Resource Team were in Jos the capital of Plateau State, Nigeria on 23rd to 24th March 2012. The duo went to Jos to deliver an integrated component of the SELL Programme to a group of Young Adults called ‘Doemak Youths Jos Branch’. The group was a mixed group in all aspects; ladies and young men, different faiths which include Christians and Muslims, even among the Christians there were different denominations. According to the facilitators Jonathan and Moses, they enjoyed working with the Youths of Doemak because they were very engaging. Members of Doemak Youths that turn up for the Programme were up to 32. From the evaluation of the Programme, some of the participants said the following;

• Pauline said she being an Athlete, is always angered by her co-athletes but having participated in the SELL Programme, she has made a decision that no one will hear her voice in the sports court in an aggressive manner again.

• Helen on her part said that, the programme was intriguing and worthwhile, that all the while, she has had wrong perceptions about Muslims.

• Patrick another participants said his mind – set has been re–ordered to think before he acts.

• Another participant whose name is not written said he was helped to understand himself, that is self awareness and that he has acquired some Leadership skills that will help him now and in the future.

That same weekend Leo, Mary and I led a discussion with a group called the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) youth wing. The discussion was on the Leadership unit of the SELL Programme. Most participants found the SELL programme very engaging as well as challenging. The major challenge for them at that forum was to choose not to treat others the way they were ill - treated by people in Authority, Leadership and Power. The forum recorded averagely 15 participants.

During the week, precisely on the 28th March 2012, the SELL Programme organised an Islamic Input, and a Resource Person (Sr. Dorothy Johnson) from Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria came to facilitate the Input session. The Resource Person studied Islam for two years in Cairo, Egypt and worked in Jordan for a couple of years, as a result, has gained a variety of knowledge and experience on Islam. I must say that the input was very stimulating as it generated very interesting discussions. At least after the input most participants came to the awareness that Islam, Judaism and Christianity as three religions that have Abraham as their father of faith.  Those who took part in the Islamic Input  comprised of priest, religious and the laity who were numbered up to 24.


The SELL team in Abuja team were on Wednesday 28th March and Thursday 29th able to gather a group of youths in new Lugbe Abuja, Nigeria to reflect on the Social Justice unit of the SELL programme. Lucy and JohnMaria who were the facilitators of the reflection, said the turnout was average and the group found the unit very educative and challenging because of the Injustices that they experience in this contemporary world. The SELL resource team want to congratulate Lucy and JohnMaria for delivering the six units of the SELL programme with the youths of their community.

Just recently, I realized that members of the SELL resource team are bless with different gift, of course every week I report here that they go to deliver the SELL programme to youths and some times , mentor the facilitator trainees who they are training to be facilitators. Now the Youths of the Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Jos comprising of 6 Dioceses namely; Shendam, Jos, Maiduguri, Jalingo, yola and Bauchi Dioceses organised a retreat for the members of the group. The retreat is hosted by the youths of Bauchi Diocese and they chose avenue which is the Youth Formation Centre, Where the SELL programme office is situated and asked members of the team to guide the retreat. The theme of the retreat  was ‘rejoice in the Lord at a time like this’.  When the organisers of this retreat came to us and said they were going to use our centre to host the youth of the diocese, we said they are welcome but when they came back and said they want us to direct it we couldn’t say yes at that time until Leo a member of the SELL resource Team who is also A resource person to the programme encouraged us to accept to guide and direct the retreat. Leo believes in us (Jonathan, Moses and I).  He said the work we engage youth with every weekend through workshops is similar to retreat. We decided to take the bull by the horn and designed a schema for the retreat, share out responsibilities amongst ourselves and gave it a try. At the end of the retreat which started on Thursday 29th to Friday 30th March, the participants did not see our work with them as an attempt but professionally guided retreat. Some of them said they have never experienced a youth retreat like this.  Thanks for the privilege to have experience this ourselves. 

What am I forgetting, Oh yes, Leo our resource member has proceeded on a leave. We wish Leo the best of time to rest. See you all on this segment next weekend. Thanks.

Maria

A saying goes that ‘wisdom comes with age but sometimes age come alone’. For the case of Sister Rita, the director of Hope for the Rural Child NGO in Kaduna, State Nigeria, her age was coming with multiples of wisdom, virtues and blessings. We had a feel of all these good qualities of hers when she came to the Youth Formation Centre YFC, Bauchi. At the YFC, where the Sharing Education and Learning for Life (SELL) Programme is run from, Sister Rita came to facilitate the annual Team Building. She did work with two teams, they are; the Youth Formation Centre Team which is a new Team, It constitutes of Mary and Hilary, while the second was the SELL Resource Team and her members include Moses, Leo, Jonathan and I. The Team Building started on Monday 18th March 2012 in the morning. Earlier on this year, when we were planning with Rita for the Team Building, we sent her some issues that we will like her to help us with ideas on how to go about them, so in a very unique way she grouped the very many issues we sent her into broad headings and she did that using a tool for analysis called the ‘mind map’, we were able to exhaust our list in 3 days though it was quite tasking on us. After the Team Building, we all had a feeling of satisfaction and even though we had our different roles on the Teams, more responsibilities were added to us and we got clarity on most of the issues we needed clarity on.

I informed you in our last week’s edition of the blog that a SELL Programme was going to take place for a group of Youths in Boi and neighbouring communities, Bogoro Local Government of Bauchi State, Nigeria. In view of this, Jonathan a member of the SELL Resource Team with Mary and Matthew members of the Bauchi SELL Team were in Boi on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th March 2012. The trio led the interactive forum for the Young Adults. While Mary and Matthew delivered the workshop, Jonathan supported and mentored them. The unit of the SELL Programme that was shared with the young Adults was the Community Building unit. They recorded 25 participants at the programme 12 of whom were female. As was reported by Jonathan and Mary, about 12 persons that took part in last weekend’s programme had experienced the programme before, some up to 6 times. A great learning most participants had during the workshop was on tolerance and building a harmonious community of peace.

While Jonathan, Mary and Matthew were out there in Boi, Moses and I went to Wunti Dada area in Bauchi town to also deliver the SELL Programme with the youths of the community. The SELL Programme eventually did not happen because the local organisers experienced some challenges in the course of organising, so we agreed to leave it for when a proper planning and organising is done.




Upcoming Events

This weekend 23rd and 24th March 2012, two SELL Programmes are going to take place one in Jos, Plateau State Nigeria with the Youths of Doemak district Jos Branch. This workshop will be hosted at Obasanjo Model School Jos, an integrated component of the Programme is going to be explored there. We wish the facilitators Moses and Jonathan good luck with that. The second SELL Programme will be for an ecumenical group which is called the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Bauchi state (Youth Wing). This is going to take place at the Youth Formation Centre Hall. Leo, Mary and I will be there to lead the Interactive sharing. 

On Wednesday 28th March 2012, a facilitator from Jos, Dorothy is going to give an Input on Islam at the Youth Formation Centre Hall, Bauchi. If you live in this area and wish to attend the Islamic Input, you are welcome.

See you next week with more update on the SELL Programme, have a nice weekend.

Maria DAGOGOT,

Communication Desk, SELL

On Saturday 10th March 2012, was the day that SELL teams in Kumasi (Adukrom and New Tafo) met for the first time for their general meeting. The meeting was held at the St. Paul’s Adukurom upper room, the meeting which started around 5:20 pm had 2 persons from New Tafo team and 10 from Adukrom in attendance. Other members of the two teams couldn’t make it to attend because of the heavy down pour on that day. During the meeting, members evaluated the last SELL training of facilitators which took place in December, 2011 at the Apiedu Catechist Centre in Kumasi, Ghana. They also discussed on the various workshops that both groups organised after the training especially the challenges they encountered and how to overcome them subsequently. According to Augustine, the leader of the two groups, everything was exited during the meeting and it ended around 7:30pm. 

Below is a report we received from the SELL team in Kumasi that organised and delivered the SELL programme at the SMA Senior High School, Adukurom.

A REPORT OF THE SELL PROGRAMME THAT HELD AT SMA SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL (FROM 3RD TO 4TH FEBRUARY, 2012)


 INTRODUCTION

               For us, it was an opportunity to organise and run a SELL Programme at SMA school, especially that we were going to share our experiences with the students who were mostly in their teen age. 


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

             The organization of the workshop was well done by Vincent, Leticia and Raymond. The trio dedicated their time and made sure that the workshop was successful. By acknowledging their efforts we say A BIG THANKS to them!

FACILITATORS

             Four person from the SELL team in Adukurom facilitated the workshop and they are; Leticia, Evans, Bernice and Augustine.

PARTICIPANTS

             24 students comprising of 10 ladies and 14 young men participated at the workshop. They were prefects (outgoing and some of the incoming) of the school. 

UNIT OF THE SELL PROGRAMME THAT WAS DELIVERED

             The Peace Building unit was explored with the students.

CHALLENGES

             Because it was an interactive forum that invited participants to think critically and choose, most of them found it so challenging to be makers of peace in all of life’s situation.

REMARKS

             It was not easy all through, but we were able to bring the workshop to a successful closure.  
Report was written by Augustine on behalf of the SELL Team in Adukurom, Kumasi, Ghana.

From the SELL Resource Team in Nigeria, we congratulate the SELL Team in Adukurom, Kumasi, Ghana for organising and facilitating the Peace Building unit of the Programme.

Another report of an event of SELL is that Moses a SELL Resource Team member attended a Trauma Healing workshop in Jos on 9th and 10th March 2012. The workshop was organised by the Damietta Peace Initiative group in Nigeria. According to Moses, the workshop took the Alternative to Violence Programme model. The objectives of the Trauma healing workshop was to help people to recognise and understand their Trauma, learn to deal with the Trauma, learn the processes of healing Trauma and to understand that life continues after a traumatic event. The workshop took place at the Pastoral Centre in Jos. It was a mixed group of Christians and Muslims drawn from all works of life. Moses said it was a wonderful experience.

Also, during the week, a new person was appointed to the Youth Formation Centre (YFC), He is Rev. Fr. Hilary Longs. Mary who works as a SELL Resource team member has a role of coordinator of YFC, she and Hilary will be working together for the growth of the young Adults of Bauchi. Before Hilary’s appointment to YFC, he held a position at the Catholic Diocese of Bauchi as the Director of the Pontifical Missionary Society (PMS). He will still continue with this assignment. A component of Hilary’s work with the PMS concerns children from ages 3 to 14 and after that age, they will be mature to start receiving the SELL programme, this will mean that Hilary will be involved with young persons at a tender age, until they are ready for marriage. 

Two SELL programmes will be taking place this weekend 16th and 17th March 2012 at two different places, one is at Boi Community.  Mary a member of the YFC team and Matthew of the Bauchi SELL Team, will be giving the Community Building workshop of SELL at Boi, while Jonathan a member of the SELL Resource Team will mentor the facilitators. Some young adults from neighbouring villages and towns are also going to take part at the SELL Programme. Boi and her neighbouring communities, especially Tafawa Balewa town, are yearning for a programme like SELL to help them explore the current challenges they face as a result of ethno religious crises. Since the past two years they have being experiencing frequent violence and attacks leaving a lot of destructions to lives and property. 

The Second SELL programme will be for a group of young adults at the Revived Church of Christ in Wuntin Dada Area in Bauchi town. The unit of the SELL Programme that will be explored with them is the Personal Growth unit. Moses and I will be there to lead this interactive forum.

Next week, we shall bring to you details of these Programmes and other events of SELL, for now, it’s bye-bye.

The SELL workshop that took place in Jalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria on 2nd – 4th March 2012 was delivered by two members of the SELL Team in Jalingo; Dominic and Victor. A member of the SELL Team in Maiduguri, Stanley, who now resides in Taraba State, joined Dominic and Victor to facilitate the workshop. The unit of the SELL Programme that was explored was the Social Justice unit. 7 young persons participated. Jonathan a member of the SELL Resource Team who mentored the facilitators said it was a highly interactive forum.  We will be glad to inform you that of all the SELL Teams in training in the North Eastern Region of Nigeria, the Jalingo SELL Team is the first to run all the six units of the SELL programme in their state. In view of this, we want to congratulate them (Dominic, Victor, Freda, Markus and Stanley) for making such efforts toward the formation of young adults in their communities in Taraba State. 

Still on the 2nd -4th March 2012, another SELL programme took place for a group of youths in Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi state, Nigeria. Mary and Moses of the Resource Team together with Matthew of the Bauchi SELL Team lead the discussion at the forum. Number of participants was 16 (6 ladies and 10 young men) the unit of the SELL programme that was explored was the Community Building unit.

The 8th of March every year is marked as the International Women’s Day. On this great day, women the world over are celebrated. The SELL resource team wants to congratulate all women especially those that are our allies. The gender component of the SELL programme encourages us to treat women with dignity and respect and protect them especially the girl child that is vulnerable to abuses. Such abuses may include; child labour, trafficking, early marriage, female genital mutilation, sexual abuse among others. 

On 9th march 2012, Moses of the SELL Resource Team went to Jos, plateau state Nigeria for a workshop on Trauma Healing, details of this will be brought to you in our next week’s update.




Upcoming workshops

Mary of the SELL Resource Team will be going with Matthew of the Bauchi SELL Team to Boi Community in Bogoro Local Government area, Bauchi State, Nigeria to give a workshop on the 16th and 17th March, 2012. The unit that will be explored with the young adults there is the Community Building Unit of the SELL Programme. Boi and her neighbouring communities especially Tafawa Balewa town are yearning for a programme like SELL to help them explore the current challenges they face as a result of ethno religious crises. Since the past two years they have being experiencing frequent Violence and attacks leaving a lot of destruction to lives and property. 

The Revived Church of Christ has organised some young Adults in Wuntin Dada area of Bauchi town and has invited the SELL Team to come and deliver a SELL Programme for them. The date for the programme is on the 16th and 17th March, 2012.

See you next week with more update on SELL.

Maria DAGOGOT

For the SELL Team.

I would like to start this week’s update by congratulating the two facilitators from the Shendam SELL Team: Dajan and Fidelis, for organising and facilitating such a wonderful SELL programme. Despite financial challenges involved in organising the programme and distance in gathering participants from different locations, the facilitators did not relent, but insisted that this programme must happen. The SELL programme took place in Kwa community of Qua’an Pan Local Government, Plateau State Nigeria. Moses, a member of the SELL resource team who went to mentor the facilitators, said it was a very good and useful interactive forum. Reading the programme’s evaluation, most of the participants said they have learnt to show love to people living with HIV/AIDS, the challenge for them is how these people can enjoy the internationally accepted Human rights in the society. The total number of participants at the workshop was 30.

On Saturday 25th February 2012, at the Youth Formation Centre (YFC), a meeting and planning was held with some selected young Adults from Bauchi State, Nigeria on their availability for the next facilitators training coming up in April 2012 in Bauchi. All the SELL potential trainees that attended were positive about the SELL programme, many of them said they will be around for the training and afterward be available for running SELL workshops in their local places.

This weekend, 2nd – 4th March 2012, a SELL workshop is going to take place in Jalingo town, the capital of Taraba State Nigeria. Jonathan of the SELL Resource Team will mentor the Jalingo SELL Team in that workshop.

Another SELL workshop is going to take place for a group of Young Adults in Toro Town, Bauchi State Nigeria. Mary,a member of the SELL Resource team, and Matthew a SELL Facilitator from Bauchi, are going to facilitate the interactive forum.


See you again next week.

Maria DAGOGOT,  

Communication Desk, SELL