West African Psychosocial Support in the Classroom Consultancy, May to August 2015
Lidra Remacka, SF Canada Member, is currently undertaking a nine-week, May to August 2015, Dakar-based field consultancy on behalf of the UNICEF Western and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) that aims to embed psychosocial support for children living in situations of emergency and crisis into classroom practice with infusion across the curriculum. The consultancy involves facilitating a five-day training program for teachers in Nigeria and Niger and the concomitant development and refinement of a prototype manual for teacher training on how to create a climate and context of psychosocial support through the use of active, child-friendly education. The manual will address the needs of children aged 3 to 17. The training program and manual aim to:
- Reinforce and promote the provision of psychosocial support within daily teaching practice using participatory pedagogies
- Identify potential healing opportunities, applications and challenges
- Empower and strengthen the teacher’s role as agent and advocate of positive change
- Create a healing classroom environment for both students and teachers
Activities in the manual are designed to develop:
- Self-awareness, sense of identity, self-respect, self-esteem and inner peacefulness
- A sense of belonging to group and other comforting communities
- A sense of wonder and hope as well as future thinking
- A sense of inclusion, participation and cooperation
- Awareness of child protection needs and issues
- Trust and resilience, with preparedness to engage with all eventualities
Each training day comprised of morning and afternoon sessions is devoted to a particular module, the modules being:
- Day One: Introduction to Participatory Psychosocial Activities
- Day Two: Building Resilience through Cooperation
- Day Three: Future Thinking
- Day Four: The Healing Classroom
- Day Five: Learning by Playing