On the 7th – 17th June 2012, a group of Church Leaders on training at the Leadership and Catechetical Training Centre in Masuga experienced the Sharing Education and Learning for Life (SELL) Programme. Masuga is one of the Suburb communities of Kontagora town in Niger State Nigeria.

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 

Some weekends of the year are usually busy weekends for the SELL Programme. During such busy weekends, many workshops do take place and many young people in different part of the country are reached. Last weekend 24th to 27th of May 2012 was one of such weekends. 

By the ended of the weekend, about 400 young people have encountered the programme in local communities in Plateau, Bauchi, and Niger States of Nigeria, including Abuja the Capital City of Nigeria. I will like to give you just a little insight into the programme that took place in these various communities and the feedback that we got from the young people that encountered the programme.

In Abuja, the programme was for young leaders of local groups from the Catholic Church of Abuja Archdiocese. Due to the large number of participants, 295 in all, the Facilitators of SELL in Abuja, Lucy and Johnmaria decided to run the programme as a seminar on Leadership using ideas from the Leadership Unit of the SELL Programme as laid out in the SELL Programme Manual. The Programme took place at the Civic Centre in Wuse district of Abuja metropolis. 

At the end of the one-day seminar, the young leaders were happy with the opportunity. While they felt the programme was short, as it was a one-day programme, they were confident that they have learnt some skills on how to improve on their approach to leading other young people in their churches. We appreciate the courage of Lucy and Johnmaria for running the programme and their wisdom of choosing to run the programme as a seminar and not a workshop as this would have been practically impossible due to the number.

For the workshop that took place in Plateau state, it was hosted in a local community called Chip, a rural community under Pankshi Local Government Area of the State. This workshop was facilitated by the Shendam Area Team of SELL Facilitators (Kathrine, Dajan and Fidelis).  Again, this was a well-attended workshop with over 58 young people in attendance. For this reason, the facilitators had to use their creativity to manage the group so that they can draw out the learning effectively. The programme took place from Friday the 25th to Sunday the 27th of May.

Mary, Jacob and Ada facilitators in Bauchi town facilitated a workshop for young people in Kafin Tafawa Community of Bauchi State. Kafin Tafawa is a Satellite town to Bauchi Metropolis. The unit of the programme that was done in Kafin Tafawa was the Leadership Unit. Using the Animal Pictures, the facilitators helped the participants to identify their leadership styles and how they can use the different styles to help in the leadership of their groups. 

A participants at the workshop Christy, was so happy about the process. She said that she was surprise at how just looking at the characteristics of various animals selected for the process can help one in exploring ones leadership style. She said she was happy to have found out her own leadership style. 

The total number of participants at the workshop were 29, comprising of 15 female and 14 male.

Finally, for the week, a training of facilitators for the SELL Programme took place in Minna Niger State of Nigeria. Moses and Jonathan, who facilitated the training left Bauchi for Minna on Wednesday, though the training was to start on Thursday the 24th. This was to enable them prepare thoroughly for the Programme. The journey to Minna saw them travelling through Jos and the Southern Part of Kaduna State Nigeria. The journey took about seven and a half hour, travelling through bad roads for the most part.

For them, the joy was that they arrived safely and met very enthusiastic young people who were ready to be trained as facilitators of the SELL Programme in their communities. In all, 13 young people drawn from Abuja and Minna Area Groups with 3 young people joining in from Bauchi took part in the training. Those trained now are to join those already trained facilitators in Abuja and Minna so that they can be able to reach more young people. We hope to follow this up with more training opportunities soon.

I like to close by saying a big thank you to all the facilitators who where in the field last weekend, for taking the programme to as many young people as possible. We hope that we will continue to record many successes like this for the rest of the year.

UPCOMING WORKSHOP

As we enter into the first week of the month of June, Moses and Maria are busy with preparing for a workshop that they are having with community leaders in Masuga in Kontagora District of Niger State. They will be working alongside Tommy Hayden of the St. Patrick Missionary Society, one of the originators of the SELL Programme. As the participants are local community leaders, they will be working with them in Hausa Language. The programme will begin on the 7th and run through the 17th of June 2012.

While they are away, I will be holding the forth in the office, working on preparing for the training we will be having in Ghana later on in the Year. 

Am sure Maria will give you all the details of the Masuga workshop when she returns from the trip.




Jonathan

Programme Coordinator

For the Resource Team.