Dear Friends,
It’s a pleasure bringing you another update on our activities for the year 2018. We really hope you are doing well in all your endeavours. As we are into the last quarter of the year it’s our prayer that all of us will end the year successfully and fruitfully so that we will be able to look back into 2018 and smile with beaming joy that all things worked together for our good regardless of the challenges.
In our September updates we mentioned we had two major training sessions – one each in the Navrongo-Bolgatanga and Tamale zones. The month of October presented the Resource Team the opportunity to have mentoring and monitoring workshops in both zones. On the first weekend of the month there were mentoring workshops in Wiaga and Fumbisi communities in the Navrongo-Bolgatanga zone, in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Two of the Resource Team members were out to mentor the Volunteer Facilitators in those communities facilitate the Community Building Unit of the programme for the first time since their training in the same unit. Both communities were able to start on the Friday evening though not many participants were present. The overview and the opening sessions were successfully carried out and that paved the way for the Saturday sessions. The total number of participants in Wiaga was 26 and that of Fumbisi was 37. After sharing their experiences in all the sessions of the Community Building Unit it was evident from their feedback from the evaluation forms that they really shared and learned a lot from the workshop. It’s therefore our hope that this learning will be useful to them and their communities for the rest of their lives and that next time there will be many participants who are of the right age group participating in the workshops.
It’s a pleasure bringing you another update on our activities for the year 2018. We really hope you are doing well in all your endeavours. As we are into the last quarter of the year it’s our prayer that all of us will end the year successfully and fruitfully so that we will be able to look back into 2018 and smile with beaming joy that all things worked together for our good regardless of the challenges.
In our September updates we mentioned we had two major training sessions – one each in the Navrongo-Bolgatanga and Tamale zones. The month of October presented the Resource Team the opportunity to have mentoring and monitoring workshops in both zones. On the first weekend of the month there were mentoring workshops in Wiaga and Fumbisi communities in the Navrongo-Bolgatanga zone, in the Upper East Region of Ghana. Two of the Resource Team members were out to mentor the Volunteer Facilitators in those communities facilitate the Community Building Unit of the programme for the first time since their training in the same unit. Both communities were able to start on the Friday evening though not many participants were present. The overview and the opening sessions were successfully carried out and that paved the way for the Saturday sessions. The total number of participants in Wiaga was 26 and that of Fumbisi was 37. After sharing their experiences in all the sessions of the Community Building Unit it was evident from their feedback from the evaluation forms that they really shared and learned a lot from the workshop. It’s therefore our hope that this learning will be useful to them and their communities for the rest of their lives and that next time there will be many participants who are of the right age group participating in the workshops.
On the 12th of October the Youth Chaplain of Navrongo-Bolgatanga zone visited the Resource Team in the Resource Room in Logre, Bolgatanga for the first time since the reopening of the Resource Room on September 3, 2018 following the month-long leave in August. Fr Clement shared with the team how the youth year has been. The team also shared with him the trainings that happened in September and the mentoring workshops over the previous weekend. The youth chaplain was thankful to the team for the immense support and contribution they are making towards the formation of the youth.
From the 12th to the 14th of October there were mentoring workshops in the Community Building Unit in Walewale, a community under the Navrongo-Bolgatanga zone. A Resource Team member was there to mentor two of the Volunteer Facilitators. The workshop could not start on the Friday evening due to a heavy downpour of rain and power outage. Starting on the Saturday with a few participants present the facilitators could only do three sessions out of the six sessions of the unit. It was however encouraging to know that the few present benefited a lot from these sessions. Their youth leaders are making efforts to organise another workshop on the same unit in order the many young adults who could not attend will also get the opportunity to explore together how to build and sustain genuine communities.
On the same weekend two of the Resource Team members were at Bolgatanga Polytechnic as part of our tertiary outreach for a workshop in the Peace Building Unit. 28 young adults were encountered. Being tertiary students who will eventually go back to their various communities to support to bring about development, this particular unit is invaluable as they learned a lot of leadership skills, styles and qualities. Their leadership team asked that the Resource Team give them two slots a year in lieu of one. This request has been looked into by the Resource Team as they have factored in two slots for the Polytechnic in the 2019 programme.
The third weekend of the month was for mentoring workshops and a facilitation workshop. A Resource Team member travelled to Tamale in the Northern region of Ghana for monitoring workshops in the Community Building Unit. Three of our mentors were in the field that weekend mentoring the Volunteer Facilitators in Savelugu, Nyankpala and Saints Peter and Paul communities. The Resource Team member went round all the communities monitoring how the workshops were conducted. The feedback from the field to the rest of the Resource Team was great! The facilitators and the mentors put a lot of energy and time into making the workshops successful. It was inspiring to see 39 Muslim youth participating in the workshops that weekend. We are therefore confident that the facilitators and the mentors are on course making the programme reach out to many young adults.
As mentioned earlier, two of the Resource Team members facilitated a workshop in the Justice Unit in the University for Development Studies (UDS) Navrongo Campus. A total of 18 students including a Muslim and two lecturers participated actively in the workshop. This particular unit seeks to enable young adults to question why the economic, religious, political and social structures are as they are. Discussion the state of affairs in Ghana, these young people accepted the reality that a lot of things are not moving in the right direction hence the need for them as young people to challenge the systems and expedite actions that will promote justice and positive change that will also bring about the development they want to see.
In the Resource Room we had two European volunteers – Silya and Diana – visiting us. After sharing with them the nature of our work and our efforts to support the global call to care for the earth they shared with us too their own efforts to reach out to reach out to some basic schools to form environment clubs and working together to take care of the environment. We hope to partner with them to promote the Caring for the Earth agenda.
On the last weekend of the month the team was back in Tamale for monitoring workshops in the Community Building Unit in two communities – Kumbungu and OLA. We had a mentor in each of the communities doing the mentoring with the Resource Team member doing the monitoring. In Kumbungu a total of 22 participants including 6 Muslim youth were encountered. It was again interesting to see young Muslims and Christians sharing their experiences together and discussion how they can individually and collectively contribute towards building peaceful communities regardless of their religious differences. The same experience was found in OLA community as there were four Muslim young adults among the thirty-two participants. It is indeed pleasing to find that the vision of ecumenism is gradually unfolding. Within the not too distant future it might be possible to have Muslim and non-Catholic Christian youth trained as Volunteer Facilitators.
The congregational leader of the St. Patrick’s Missionary Society (SPMS) visited the Presentation Brothers’ school community in Logre, Bolgatanga – Upper East Region, Ghana. Two of the SELL Resource Team members, Frs. Tommy Hayden and Leo Traynor, who are at the same time the Resource Persons and authors of the programme are priests of the same society. They also live in the school community. He arrived on the 29th of October. Fr Victor, as he is called, visited the SELL Resource Room the following day. The team shared with him the timeline of the programme from 2015 to 2018. He was informed of the number of communities and young people reached since the programme started. The team expressed their gratitude to the St. Patrick’s Missionary Society for allowing the resource persons to work on the programme as a ministry and for their enormous financial support towards the running of the programme. On his part, Fr Victor could not hide his joy about how far and fast the programme has developed and most importantly about the impact it’s making on the lives of young people. He thanked the team for their efforts and encouraged them to continue with the good work.
Later that day he together with the Resource Team met four of the Volunteer Facilitators in Bolgatanga. The Volunteers thanked him and his society for initiating and promoting the Sharing Education and Learning for Life (SELL) Programme which fosters integrated human development and peace building in young adults. They shared how they got involved with SELL first as participants and later becoming Facilitators and the how programme has influenced their lives. They also expressed how joyful it is for them to help other young adults through the programme. Fr Victor was impressed with their dedication to the programme voluntarily. He further urged them to continue with the hard work to ensure the realisation of the vision and mission of the programme.
The Resource Team is therefore immensely grateful to the Volunteers for their efforts to ensuring the workshops were successful, the Presentation Brothers for their support; the youth chaplains for their encouragement to the Volunteers and to the benefactors for their generosity. Thanks to everyone who supported and continue to support the work in different forms. There are a lot of workshops to be conducted in November and the team will be posting updates of those workshops at the end of the month.
Later that day he together with the Resource Team met four of the Volunteer Facilitators in Bolgatanga. The Volunteers thanked him and his society for initiating and promoting the Sharing Education and Learning for Life (SELL) Programme which fosters integrated human development and peace building in young adults. They shared how they got involved with SELL first as participants and later becoming Facilitators and the how programme has influenced their lives. They also expressed how joyful it is for them to help other young adults through the programme. Fr Victor was impressed with their dedication to the programme voluntarily. He further urged them to continue with the hard work to ensure the realisation of the vision and mission of the programme.
The Resource Team is therefore immensely grateful to the Volunteers for their efforts to ensuring the workshops were successful, the Presentation Brothers for their support; the youth chaplains for their encouragement to the Volunteers and to the benefactors for their generosity. Thanks to everyone who supported and continue to support the work in different forms. There are a lot of workshops to be conducted in November and the team will be posting updates of those workshops at the end of the month.
RSS Feed