| Regional Skills Development Program - Regional Training of TrainersRegionalization of Training of Trainers (ToT) will take place in 2007 and 2008, as a step towards decentralization. Each regional desk organizes a Training of Trainers per region, in 2007 and 2008. The participants will organize one Active Nonviolence (ANV) training upon their return home. The Regional Desk supports the replicated trainings with seed money and a mentor. The follow-up TOT will evaluate the trainers’ progress, address obstacles, and identify needs for further support and monitoring.
Training of Trainers in AfricaFourteen women participated in The first African Regional ToT for the Greater Horn of Africa, which took place from 27 November to 7 December 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya. The training enhanced the capacities of qualified women trainers to be able to replicate the trainings at the grassroots. It also focused on developing a network of local resource persons at community levels throughout Africa. Participants came from Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Eritrea. Some of them experienced some amount of culture shock, being in Kenya the first time. The energizers and other teambuilding exercises such as the practice of “new day, new seat, new neighbor, that was built into the process helped to ease tensions. The participants related very well with one another. Some of them heard about the UNSC Resolution 1325 for the first time. This they considered an eye-opener as they got to know that there was a framework within which they could work as women peace activists. The second African Regional ToT took place from April 21 to May 2, 2008 in Bujumbura, Burundi. The training brought together sixteen French speaking women from the Central Africa Region, namely Burundi, Rwanda, DRC Congo, and Cameroon. Though the training took place when Bujumbura was in a tense situation, expressed through the heightened presence of army personnel near the training location, the women were courageous and stayed focused on the training. The training was conducted by a very skilled participatory trainer who is a former trainee of IFOR/WPP TOT.
The new course module on gender and environment was so insightful for participants, as one of them remarked that “they never thought gender had anything to do with the environment”. It was such an eye opener for them as they came to terms with the fact that most conflicts in Africa are as a result of access to resources which usually is exploited from the environment. Therefore women have a major role to play in helping resolve environmental conflicts.
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The celebration of “national days” was so well organized with the various countries mounting stands with exhibits on the handiworks of women and also presentations on the history, governance and the role women have played in these countries. These evening sessions, though extra-curricular, offered more learning opportunities for participants to assess the genesis of the conflicts that have plagued the various countries. This set them thinking seriously about how they as women can position themselves to participate effectively in peacebuilding activities. The final reports on the Africa ToT's will be attached to this website soonest.
First Training of Trainers in AsiaThe Asian Regional ToT took place from 26 November to 7 December 2007 at Kochi, India, where currently the Asia Regional Office is located. Its goal was to strengthen the skills of Asian women in gender sensitive active nonviolence training and education and strengthen their ability to impart training back home. The training gave women the opportunity to exchange experiences, talk about successes and challenges and add new friends to their networks. In addition they paid visits to several women's projects run by the Cultural Academy for Peace (CAP), the host of both WPP's Asia Regional Desk and the ToT: several income generating projects in the fishermen's community and a women's shelter in Cochin. The ToT participants also received a warm welcome at the local HIV/AIDS Day celebration event. The last evening was a festive cultural evening: participants were asked to show up in their national dress and to give a musical, dance or other type of performance to make their sisters acquainted with their home countries. |
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