By Tahir Khilji | Project director
Inception workshop:
VISION held two inception workshops of one day each in Rawalpindi and Mardan respectively. In both the workshops, the entire team VISION was present and during the day-long session, the history of this project was shared with the team, along with the activity plan and deliverables, supplemented by the budget of the project.
In the 2nd half of the day, VISION’s internal monitoring mechanism was discussed. The details of daily reports, the process of reflection upon the reports and finally the development of database was also part of the discussion
Following this session, the tools that were to be used in the interactive session with the community were shared with the team and re-familiarization with each tool such as the malamal game, the IEC material, the possibility of using sand-table exercise was discussed in this final session.
Identification of beneficiaries and interactive sessions:
In each outreach session some of the following activities are permanently used for purposes of engagement and understanding the group along with identification of individuals who reflect promise and qualities that are considered pre-requisites of leadership skills.
The session always starts with introductions led by Field Coordinator (FC) - who is one of the senior representatives i.e. Guru of the community. Following the introduction, the FC further explains the objectives of the session and also talks about the current funding and the expectations of the donor from the project. It is also explained to the group that while there may not be any financial incentive for this gathering, however, there is a built-in incentive of enhancement of skills and potential trainings that may help the community to increase their job opportunities and enable them to become part of the mainstream job market.
Another incentive that VISION has linked to these sessions is that of membership. The group is explained that whosoever among them will become a member of VISION’s initiative of building leadership skills, that individual/s will be facilitated in matters related to acquiring National Identity Card (NIC), against police harassment, HIV testing and identification of health facilities providing free medication and judicial matters where fundamental rights of the community have been infringed etc.
Before the initiation of any session a proper informed consent of the participant is taken either verbally or through a puppet act. This informed consent includes the permission of taking pictures as well. Only those individuals are photographed who give the permission to the outreach team.
Activities during the session:
The leading activities during these sessions are:
Malamal board game:
The malamal board game is similar to monopoly except malamal covers a broad range of issues that are relevant to everyday life of street populations and/or populations living on the margins of the society. Some of the issues that are pertinent to this specific population are: awareness on HIV & AIDS, recourse in cases where there is a potential threat of arrest, judicial remedies, opening bank account, renting and buying properties etc.
The rationale for using malamal in the sessions is multifold. First of all the community finds this game interesting and is willing to engage with the outreach team. The game also brings structure into the life of the community for a brief period where each person has to wait for her/his turn to roll the dice. Since the game is mostly based upon questions with multiple answers therefore, it motivates analytical thinking in individuals who maybe playing the game.
This game further generates discussions on wrong answers and aptly provides entry points to outreach team to dispel myths and misconceptions regarding diseases, tenant’s powers, police authority, essential documents for opening bank account, applying for travel documents such as passport and much more. In addition to this the game increases the attention span of the players; it also enables them to understand that the knowledge acquired through playing the game is useful in their daily lives as well as in the lives of their other community members.
Since the game has fake currency and different investments with a proper banking system, it introduces the community to the world of business and investment through saving their income and using the banking system.
Finally for the outreach team, the reactions of the players, their level of engagement, their discussions with each other and their taking pride in winning the game provides an opportunity to identify potential possibilities for youth councils and its membership. The numbers of sessions conducted during this quarter along with the count of participants and identified potential council members is attached with this report in a table format as annex 1
Use of IEC materials:
In the same sessions the malamal game is supplemented with the IEC materials- the sample of which is visible above. These IEC materials enables the outreach team/s to emphasize upon some of those issues that are considered essential to build-up leadership skills in any individual e.g. problem solving, conflict resolution, having correct and accurate information to guide others etc.
The methodology of using these IEC materials is simple and easy to follow, the outreach teams have the knowledge of the package of materials that they may-be carrying to these sessions. During the discussions whenever there is any ambiguity, the outreach team pulls out the relevant materials for purposes of explaining the process. The material is then passed around among the session participants who then take a look at it and if can read, also read the messages along with the pictorial. At times if there are participants in the group who may not be literate then their peers who can read also help the others to understand the messages. In any case most of this process is conducted by the Field Coordinator who belongs to the community.
Developing database of interactive sessions:
The database is structured upon the information received in daily reports of the outreach teams. While the main page provides: Names, Orientation, Ages, Skill level, Education, Residence, Profession, Status of National Identity Card and etc; it is the activity page and its analysis that provides insight into the outcomes of each activity during the session as mentioned above.
Each activity has a range of 1-5, 1 being poor and 5 is excellent. After each activity the participants are asked to rate each activity on the above scale. The ratings are used to further generate figures precisely depicting the effectiveness and popularity of the activity. In monthly meetings, these figures are discussed and wherever any tweaking is required, the team collectively comes up with solutions to better the activity.
A pictorial link to all the activities will be shortly attached with this report
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