Psycho-Social & Guidance Counseling for 30 Girls

Dear Project Supporters,

We are excited to bring you an update on the 3-day workshop for youths / young ladies that you helped to provide. 

The 20 girls (ages 12 to 20 years) that attended were very eager to learn and thankful for this opportunity. 

These workshop topics were carefully selected based on the high teenage pregnancy rate.  Adolescents and young people must be provided with the right information about the changes that they go through. 

The topics included:

1. Self Esteem Skills
2. Techniques for Building Critical Thinking
3. Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health
4. Specific Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive changes in Adolescent boys and girls
5. Teenage Pregnancy
6. Community Guidance and Counseling

For most of them, this was the first time to hear of some of these issues. The training sessions were very participatory with active discussions by all.  The sessions provided the initial knowledge, skills, attitudes awareness and values. 

Watch a video where one of the beneficiaries talks about what she learned.

The young ladies are now excitedly sharing and talking with their friends about what they learned.  They have started reaching out to their friends. They held a meeting on January 22nd where they discussed strategies on how they would bring change in their community. They have started visiting schools within the environs, talking about the dangers of teenage pregnancy, the benefits of having high self-esteem and thinking critically through challenges. They have planned a future meeting at which parents will be invited to discuss these issues.  These newly trained beneficiaries will be the facilitators.

Clearly, the training made a difference and we are already seeing the impact.

While we are grateful for the impact of the workshop, the workshop duration did not enable full coverage of these topics. With this in mind, the trainers recommended follow-up monitoring, peer-to-peer mentoring, on-going scholarship support to ensure the girls stayed in school and refresher training, at least annually.  They also recommended that support groups be established at schools.  These groups would help provide counseling and support for other girls.

Should you be interested in helping us take this to the next level, please contact us. We would additionally like to create both online and printed resources.

Thank you again for helping Develop Africa provide this training. We appreciate your continued support as we prepare more ladies for adult life and maturity.

With great appreciation,
The Develop Africa Team

Links:

• Geraldine tells us what she learned at the workshop