Jali Training is back! July 5th 2018 marked the start of Jali Training’s July cycle with the “induction” of volunteers for the six-week project! Induction Day at Tai Tanzania is a two-day event where volunteers who have applied to participate as Jali Class Facilitators get an introduction to the project and familiarize themselves with the topics they’ll be covering at the secondary schools. This cycle’s Induction was held at American Corner, located at Maktaba Kuu ya Taifa (National Central Library) in Dar es Salaam.
On Thursday, July 5th; the first day of Induction; 25 volunteers received a warm welcome from Lovis, our Jali Project Manager, and Loyce, our Jali Project coordinator. In order to liven up the atmosphere and have the volunteers get out of their comfort zones, everyone had the opportunity to introduce themselves and play two short fun “warm-up” games.
Rosemary, our Communications Coordinator, and Aurelia, our Partnerships Coordinator from our Communications Team then gave an hour long soft-skill training to the volunteers on “Presentation skills” and “the Do’s and Don’ts of Presenting”; a training that we hope was helpful to the volunteers to use even in their own young professional lives.
Hyasintha Ntuyeko, Managing Director of Kasole Secrets and founder of Glory Pads, attended our first Induction Day as a guest speaker where she gave an inspiring speech to the volunteers about their role on providing young girls and boys MHM education and the importance of treating this subject sensitively as they will be role models to the students. She emphasized to the volunteers that their role is to educate and inspire, as they are close in age, they are not to be observed as teachers but instead as facilitators and she went on to explain how the use of different games is beneficial in energizing and enforcing team-building and concentration among the students.
To wrap up day one, the volunteers were organized in groups to present different topics of what they’ll be covering in the following weeks as practice and were given feedback on their performance by the Communications team. After a short game of “What We Have Learned Today”, the first Induction Day came to a delightful end.
The second Induction Day began the following day, Friday July 6th, with a soft skill training on “Conflict Management” by Gwamaka Mwabuka, our Communications Lead. Gwamaka made perfect use of role playing as he had the volunteers in two groups where they had to identify the causes of conflict in each group and how to avoid/solve similar situations. Gwamaka concluded his session by showcasing an episode of “Harakati za Lucy”, the “edutainment’ of Tai, which is to be showcased to students on the 5th week of school trainings.
Dr. Mashingo John Lerise, a doctor from Marie Stopes, attended day two as our final guest speaker. The volunteers were extremely delighted with his presence as he was able to share his knowledge on topics of SRH and MHM. They felt encouraged to ask questions as he cleared all misconceptions and myths relating to menstrual and reproductive health that the volunteers once believed to be true.
Dr. Mashingo described the use of disposable as well as reusable pads, tampons, and menstrual cups, each of which was passed around to demonstrate its use. This enabled the volunteers to ask questions concerning menstrual hygiene and the menstrual cycle. The activity had a bigger impact on male volunteers as a few of them have never felt or seen how these menstrual products are used.
Nearing the end, Lovis and Loyce explained the use of Google Forms as an evaluation tool for the volunteers, a task that would require them to fill out an evaluation form after each teaching session to evaluate the effectiveness of each lesson and training
As the second and final day of Induction was coming to an end, Halima, our Campaigns and Events Coordinator, introduced the “Supermarket Campaigns”, an activity where every Saturday for the next 6 weeks volunteers would stand in front of a supermarket next to our “Binti Box” (pad donation boxes) handing out flyers to encourage people to donate pads. Six volunteers were chosen for this activity and were rewarded with Tai T-shirts. The day ended with final words of encouragement and a short game leaving the volunteers inspired to make an impact at the secondary schools!