Saturday, July 19, 2008

Managing Adolescence - One day workshop for Children from the World Vision Project in Chennai. 19 July 2008






































This one day workshop on managing adolescence was a participatory workshop. We had a number of activities that taught young people to be assertive, to do critical thinking, making assessment of a situation, making decisions, being creative, introspection while having a lot of fun. The participants were between the ages of 12 to 16. There were almost 100 adolescent girls from various communities in Chennai. 

 

The session was led by Mrinalini Sekar and assisted by Thamilarasi and Magdalene Jeyarathnam.

 

At the end of the day the children gave feedback about how they felt and how they enjoyed the activities. Some simple exercises on managing pain during menstruation were also taught to the children.  The young people completely enjoyed all the activities and asked for more such days of fun and learning.

 

Some of the activities were

 

Activity

Learning

Warm up

 

who am I

Identifying self. Defining oneself

Mirroring

I am a reflection of so many influences. Towards identifying my unique self

Lead with a body part

Open your mind to possibilities – not to be blocked by the straight and narrow – creative thinking

Exercises to combat woman-specific and gynaec issues

To emphasize that they should talk to someone responsible

Ways of managing their physical pain

Very often adolescent girls may experience pain or if meet with an accident or fallen down.

Wind

Realization of adaptation of self to every relationship( mother, family/,friend)

Toe-chalk

Identification of emotion is necessary step to solution

Creative thinking and lateral thinking 

Interpretation of the individual drawing was done within the group and there was a lot of emotional ventilation.

Me and my space

 

Learning to set limits; to say an emphatic NO
Building a house 

Being assertive, and the right to say no if you don’t like what somebody doing in your house

Relaxation and breathing exercises

Identifying avenues for frustration release

Trust Building

Dealing with the complex emotions of trust

Naming the Dance

Help children who are shy to be bold enough, creative and lateral thinking

Fun way of decision making

Free dance

Party time

Cool down

 

Day Four - Certificate distribution






The certificates were distributed by Dr Vijay Edward and Mr Christopher Baskar from World Vision National Office.  


The group gave their feedback and discussed if their expectations were met.


Overall it was a very satisfying workshop.