Hello dear Reader, hope you are following the SELL update on this blog, we also hope that you are finding our write-ups interesting. It may interest you to know that you can make your comments to us on our email address: sellfoundation@gmail.com and we will post your comment on our blog.

Last week I informed you that the Bauchi SELL Team of trained facilitators have a SELL workshop to deliver at Yelwa Community in Bauchi metropolis and that Jonathan and I will accompany them.

The facilitators, Mary James, Pius Paul and Jacob Paulus delivered a workshop on the Community Building Unit of the SELL programme and met about 18 Young adults who said their major challenge in this unit of the programme was on Gender issues, the role of women in the society, most of them realized that women carry a burden of triple work than men do and they left the venue challenged to share responsibilities in their homes with their sisters, mothers and wives when they get married. 

The symbol of the Community Building Unit is the Rainbow which signifies different people with diverse cultures and beliefs living together in the same community respecting each other and their beliefs.

During the just concluded facilitators training that took place in Jos, the Abuja Team comprising of Lucy Gbendeh and John Maria Baba wrote a poem in their mid-workshop evaluation and here is the beautiful poem titled O SELL

                                                      
O SELL!!!

The journey to SELL was conceived like a pregnant woman. 

The groom from Abuja came across this beautiful bride

Then they fell in love,

She came to us calling with her melodious voice, 

We answered in the month of May, 

And it came to lime light. 

In her warm embrace 

We were welcomed by her into her bosom At the Centre for Renewal. 

Her serene environment so charming, 

Her home chill though, 

We stayed and enjoyed her romance.

Her menu was packed full with a lot of choice meal, 

So we ate.

She was not only kind to Abuja but to all that harkened to her calling, we met faces like Jos, Kabba, Minna, Shendam, Jalingo, Yola, and Maiduguri. 

The place we met her was triangular (room, refectory and classroom)

 Her steward not bad and willing to improve.

 O SELL, 

You are a darling

We will never forget you even in our dream 

My beloved sell. 

Hope you enjoyed that.

Upcoming events

• This weekend 16th and 17th July, 2010 Jonathan, Pius Paul a Bauchi team facilitator in training and I will be at Fadama Mada Community in Bauchi to still deliver a workshop on Community Building unit of the SELL Programme

• Moses will be attending training in Jos at the Pastoral Centre titled 


Alternative to Violence. Organized by Damietta Peace Initiative. 

Stay with us on this blog and enjoy more of these in the coming week.




Maria




For the SELL Team  

In the last edition of this blog, Moses informed you that Leo, Jonathan and I were in Jos at the Centre for Renewal to facilitate the training of 33 young adults who volunteered themselves to be trained as facilitators of the Sharing Education and Learning for life (SELL) Programme. Participants for this training came from the 6 Dioceses of the Catholic Ecclesiastical province of Jos, namely, Jalingo, Yola, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Jos and Shendam others came from Abuja, Minna in Niger State and Kabba, Kogi state all of Nigeria. Four youth Chaplains also attended the training, these priests were Frs. Anthony Hanya from Jalingo, Hieronyme Ga’am from Shendam, Denis Kaye from Jos and Charles Danboyi from Maiduguri. Their presence was an encouragement to the participants. The participants know that their Chaplains will support them when they return back to their diocese to deliver the Programme. 

Arrival date for this training was on the 25th of June, 2010 while departure was 4th July, 2010. In between these two dates was 8 full days which we used for the training. The trainees were trained in two units of the 6 units of the sell programme. These two units are; Personal Growth and leadership units and here is a brief run down of what happened.

Most of our participants were new to the programme. The facilitators, Jonathan Leo and I shared out pieces from the training schema. We introduced the SELL programme and the philosophy behind it.

The first unit that was presented was the personal growth unit of the SELL programme, with the symbol of a river, Jonathan took us through it, and he said the life of human beings is like a flowing river. That a river has a source and where it is going to either to join another small river or to enter the sea or ocean and that could be its end point or destination. Other sessions of the Personal Growth unit were discussed and these sessions are; the Johari’s window, Transactional analysis and the Human behavior, Relationship and friendship, know yourself and sexuality. What was most challenging to the participants was the exercise on know yourself. Most participants say they had not really found time to assess themselves, but with this, they realized that even as individuals they need to create to time examine themselves, that this will help them know themselves, their capabilities and weakness so as to improve on them.


As for the leadership unit the participants saw the need for transformation in our society, from the hierarchical model of leadership to around table leadership. We help them to explore the servant leadership style which we also call the community model leadership. From the evaluation of this unit, participants said they found Pass the Message exercise very insightful some said their communication skills have been improved.

The 8 day work was very intense; we worked for at least 11 hours daily. The facilitators in training got a lot to take back to their various dioceses. It is our prayer that as they go to deliver this programme to the young adults of their places they will find inspiration to do the work effectively.

All work and no play make Jack and Jane a dull boy and girl. The group organized a social night to end the training and that was on Saturday evening, it was very interesting because there was a lot to drink and eat. We all danced and shook off the fatigue of the training.  On Sunday morning, after the mass we all started departing.

This weekend, the Bauchi SELL Team comprising of Mary James, Pius Paul and Jacob Paulus will be going to Yelwa community in Bauchi, to deliver a workshop on the Community Building unit of the SELL Programme, Jonathan and I will be accompanying them. We wish them good luck in that. 

Stay with us in this column. See you next week.




 Maria 

For SELL Team

On the 23rd to 24 July 2010, two members of the SELL Team, Jonathan and I went to Tafawa Balewa Local Government area, Bauchi State to deliver a workshop which we see as very successful, though the participants at the workshop were only 13. They said their number which was normally above 50 was reduced to 13 because most of the young adults had gone to farm since it is raining season.

The unit of the SELL programme that was delivered at Tafawa Balewa was the Peace Building unit. Despite the few number of participants, the workshop was not boring; it was as though participants were carefully selected. Their contributions were brilliant and we got a sense from the end of workshop evaluation that they understood the essence of the Peace Building unit. It is unbelievable that with the publicity on sexuality, particularly HIV/AIDS and how it spreads, most people are still ignorant about the way it could be contracted. During the session on sexuality, one of the participants Hajaratu, contributed that she has heard and believed that men cannot contract HIV from women through sex but only women can contract it from men. So she was educated and given the fact by the facilitators and other participants that both men and women are equally at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS from each other if they have sex (especially unprotected sex). Other participants at the workshop added that HIV is majorly contracted through having sex and other means which are minimal like blood to blood contact; through the use of sharp object like unsterilized clippers, blood transfusion, cuts and mother to child transmission. etc.

I informed you last week that Moses and Leo will attend a Peace Mediation Meeting in Jos. The Meeting which was supposed to take place at an area in Nasarawa Gwom community of Jos was postponed due to the recent unrest in the area. Though the Team of mediators went to the area and met both the Christian and Muslim Leaders who advised that the meeting be fixed for another time and this was agreed by all the parties involved. The peace meeting is organized by the Damietta Peace Initiative Project. We shall announce this new date to you in due time. 

Last weekend, Pius Paul a Bauchi SELL Team facilitator and Jonathan went to a Pentecostal church in Bauchi and delivered a Personal Growth workshop for the youths of the church. The Number of participants met were 20. Most of them said they have never attended a life giving workshop like the SELL workshop. They have requested that we include them in our next years programme so that they may be able to finish all the SELL units. We want to thank our link person John and the Youth Pastor of the church for working tirelessly and making sure that this workshop held.

Also on Thursday the 29th of July 2010, Moses went to Jos to continue the training he started last two weeks in on “Alternative to Violence Project” organized by the Damietta Peace Initiative Project. Participants at the training are drawn from crises prone areas particularly Jos. As I gathered from Moses the second training is more comprehensive and academic than the first. The first training which took place last two weeks was an introduction to the processes used in the second training. The second training covers Anger Management, Conflict Resolution, processes like Mediation consensus, confrontation, compromise and consultation among others. The third phase of the training which is also the facilitators stage will be coming up in September. We in our Team want to commend Sr. Helena, Maji Peterx and the carefronting facilitators from Kaduna for their courage and skills in organizing and delivering this workshop.

UPCOMING EVENTS.

• This weekend, the SELL Team will be delivering a workshop on the Community Building unit of the SELL programme at Boi Community in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi. This time, Jacob Paulus one of the Bauchi SELL Team facilitators and Moses will be there to deliver the workshop.

• It’s over a year now since one of our Team members went on sabbatical leave in England, Noel McGeeney a priest of the Saint Patrick’s Missionary Society has arrived back to Nigeria and to us at the Youth Formation Centre. We are happy to have him back.

• Lastly the date for the Training in Ghana is getting close, Leo has already traveled to Ghana to plan some of the logistics for the training and next week, Jonathan and I will join him.

I informed you last week that the training will be for 14 persons but its is our joy to say that 2 other young adults are joining in to make a total of 16 trainees.

You will hear more on this training in our next editions, so stay with us.

Maria
Communications, YFC.

In the last edition of this blog, Moses informed you that Leo, Jonathan and I were in Jos at the Centre for Renewal to facilitate the training of 33 young adults who volunteered themselves to be trained as facilitators of the Sharing Education and Learning for life (SELL) Programme. Participants for this training came from the 6 Dioceses of the Catholic Ecclesiastical province of Jos, namely, Jalingo, Yola, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Jos and Shendam others came from Abuja, Minna in Niger State and Kabba, Kogi state all of Nigeria. Four youth Chaplains also attended the training, these priests were Frs. Anthony Hanya from Jalingo, Hieronyme Ga’am from Shendam, Denis Kaye from Jos and Charles Danboyi from Maiduguri. Their presence was an encouragement to the participants. The participants know that their Chaplains will support them when they return back to their diocese to deliver the Programme. 

Arrival date fo this training was on the 25th of June, 2010 while departure was 4th July, 2010. In between these two dates was 8 full days which we used for the training. The trainees were trained in two units of the 6 units of the sell programme. These two units are; Personal Growth and leadership units and here is a brief run down of what happened.

Most of our participants were new to the programme. The facilitators, Jonathan Leo and I shared out pieces from the training schema. We introduced the SELL programme and the philosophy behind it.

The first unit that was presented was the personal growth unit of the SELL programme, with the symbol of a river, Jonathan took us through it, and he said the life of human beings is like a flowing river. That a river has a source and where it is going to either to join another small river or to enter the sea or ocean and that could be its end point or destination. Other sessions of the Personal Growth unit were discussed and these sessions are; the Johari’s window, Transactional analysis and the Human behavior, Relationship and friendship, know yourself and sexuality. What was most challenging to the participants was the exercise on know yourself. Most participants say they had not really found time to assess themselves, but with this, they realized that even as individuals they need to create to time examine themselves, that this will help them know themselves, their capabilities and weakness so as to improve on them.

As for the leadership unit the participants saw the need for transformation in our society, from the hierarchical model of leadership to around table leadership. We help them to explore the servant leadership style which we also call the community model leadership. From the evaluation of this unit, participants said they found Pass the Message exercise very insightful some said their communication skills have been improved.

The 8 day work was very intense; we worked for at least 11 hours daily. The facilitators in training got a lot to take back to their various dioceses. It is our prayer that as they go to deliver this programme to the young adults of their places they will find inspiration to do the work effectively.

All work and no play make Jack and Jane a dull boy and girl. The group organized a social night to end the training and that was on Saturday evening, it was very interesting because there was a lot to drink and eat. We all danced and shook off the fatigue of the training.  On Sunday morning, after the mass we all started departing.

This weekend, the Bauchi SELL Team comprising of Mary James, Pius Paul and Jacob Paulus will be going to Yelwa community in Bauchi, to deliver a workshop on the Community Building unit of the SELL Programme, Jonathan and I will be accompanying them. We wish them good luck in that. 

Stay with us in this column. See you next week.




 Maria 

For SELL Team