Schools – C4D Network

My Safety, My Wellbeing: Equipping adolescent girls with key knowledge and skills to help them to mitigate, prevent and respond to gender based violence (IRC, 2016)

February 11, 2019

This curriculum was developed by the IRC and the Women’s Protection and Empowerment programme to equip adolescent girls with key knowledge and skills to help them to reduce, prevent and respond to gender-based violence (GBV). It is designed to be used in the classroom.

The curriculum is structured to have two separate age groups (11-13 and 14-18) enrolled in 24 two-hour sessions over the course of 12 weeks. Skills-building sessions address topics such as communication, decision making, confidence and problem solving, each with a specific focus on GBV, early marriage, reproductive health, hygiene, managing stress, relationships with parents, and having healthy relationships.

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Redesigning an education project for child friendly radio: a multisectoral collaboration to promote children’s health, education, and human rights after a humanitarian crisis in Sierra Leone (BMJ 2018; 363 :k4667)

February 11, 2019

In this paper the authors describe how an educational project was rapidly adapted into a radio education programme after the 2014 Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.

In May 2014, Sierra Leone reported its first case of Ebola in Kailahun, a remote, marginalised, and impoverished district bordering Liberia. The district had one of the highest concentrations of Ebola infections during this outbreak. After this, over 1600 children were orphaned and gender inequalities were exacerbated . Public health control measures put in place by the government of Sierra Leone included closing all schools and prohibiting public congregation.

The educational programme “Getting Ready for School”, funded by the UK charity Comic Relief, had been operating since its launch in 2011 within 21 schools in Kailahun. While many other educational services stopped entirely in Kailahun, the Getting Ready for School programme was redesigned as a radio education programme called Pikin to Pikin Tok (PtPT), meaning Child to Child Talk, in Krio. The lead consortium partner was Child to Child, a UK based international child rights non-governmental organisation (NGO) (www.childtochild.org.uk), and the lead implementing partner was Pikin-To-Pikin (www.pikintopikin.org), a local NGO. The goals and objectives of the project changed in response to the circumstances in Sierra Leone; this required a substantially different approach by the redesigned scheme than in the original project. The entire effort, from starting the school project to the end of the radio project, ran from 2011 to 2016.

Click here for full paper.

Learning About Living e-Learning programme (OneWorld UK and Butterfly Works, Nigeria 2007-2011)

January 23, 2016

Background: ‘Learning about Living’ (LaL) was designed to empower young people in Nigeria to make well-informed decisions about their personal lives and relationships by utilising ICTs to provide accurate and non-judgemental information about sexual health. Its objectives included a measurable positive change in adolescent knowledge, attitudes and practices relating to sexual health.

It was initiated in 2006 by OneWorld UK and Butterfly Works, Netherlands, working with key stakeholders’ in the youth sexual and reproductive health field in Nigeria. A two-year pilot ran from 2007 – 2009, followed by a three-year scale-up stage which ran from 2009-2011. In 2012 the programme was passed onto local partners and stakeholders to run and manage.

What did the programme involve? An interactive e-Learning programme in the form of an electronic version of the Family Life and HIV/Aids Education (FLHE) national curriculum was created in order to teach adolescents about all aspects of reproductive health, including HIV prevention. This was based on the curriculum developed by the National Agency for Curriculum Development in the Nigerian educational sector. The programme was rolled out across over 500 schools and wider reach was later provided by a national mobile phone helpline.

Teachers from each school involved received training about how to use the programme – including learning about participatory teaching practices, such as how to encourage and prompt discussion amongst young people in response to the issues raised by the programme. Teachers also received copies of the LaL CD and help with set-up, plus ongoing support provided through local organisations. Some schools were also given a computer.

The e-Learning programme featured virtual peer educators who provided interactive information – through games, activities, cartoons, and quizzes – on various sexual and reproductive health issues including HIV prevention as well as wider issues such as self-esteem and how to stay healthy.

The mobile phone helpline supported this classroom based programme as it meant students who had more personal questions they felt uncomfortable asking or discussing in the classroom could call or text the confidential mobile phone helpline or could be referred by their teacher to a local young-people friendly health service.

Why this approach? The ‘participatory learning’ approach was used as this approach acknowledges and welcomes existing knowledge and competence of the students; students are central in the learning process and teachers become facilitators. Students are given space to develop their own viewpoint through active experience. It is most appropriate when the subject being taught affects deeply help beliefs and attitudes. HIV/AIDs and other reproductive health issues fit into this category, hence the choice of a participatory approach. Participatory approaches should empower young people to co-solve the challenges and co-design the path forward.

Results observed: In the 2012 yearly evaluation, 78% of young people who used the service reported that they passed on the information they received to family and friends. The impact of eFLHE was found to be up to 10-20% more effective as a teaching method when compared to the regular method of teaching the curriculum.

Learning About Living encouraged young people to think about issues relating to sexual health. This is evidenced by the fact that when the mobile phone helpline was launched in November 2007, over 11,000 questions had been sent by the end of January 2008. 27,000 questions had been asked by mid-July 2008. The external evaluation including feedback from students, including one student who said: “I feel free now to talk about issues of sexuality.”

Lessons learnt: One of the key lessons learnt from the case study is the importance of continuing evaluation. Evaluation of the programme in schools highlighted that some students still felt uncomfortable asking certain questions in a class environment. As a result of this, the confidential mobile phone helpline was introduced.

In addition the importance of participation can be seen. Through young people being encouraged to learn actively, they are more likely to share their knowledge with others.

(Source: Learning about Living website)

Participatory Theatre Gains Momentum (UNICEF workshop report 2015)

August 7, 2015

Participatory Theatre Gains Momentum, New Vision and Renewed Focus

Workshop Charts a Path for Strengthening Participatory Theatre as a cross-cutting Communication for Development Platform

LUSAKA, Zambia, 16 July 2015 (UNICEF) – More than 70 participants from 18 countries — across six continents — gathered here last week to share, learn, and sharpen strategies on how participatory theatre can engage communities to claim their rights and address specific development and humanitarian challenges.

The seven-day workshop closed over the weekend in a ceremony with representation from Zambia’s Deputy Minister of Tourism and Arts, Hon. Esther Banda, MP, Chairman of the National Arts Council, Mulenga Kwepepe and senior UNICEF officials. Throughout the week, workshop participants deliberated on principles and standards for raising the quality of practice. These were captured in a Lusaka Declaration outlining detailed commitments of theatre practitioners for using participatory theatre as an approach for community engagement, behaviour change and social transformation.

“Participatory Theatre can be a potent medium to address power imbalances in communities which prevent them from fulfilling their basic rights. It can be applied in conflict-affected settings to address underlying causes of tensions and build social cohesion; in post emergency situations to help reduce trauma and in development contexts to tackle harmful socio-cultural norms and practices such as child marriage, female genital mutilation and open defecation,” said Kerida McDonald, UNICEF’s Senior Advisor for Communications for Development at its New York City-based headquarters. “But it is important to ensure that we are not un-wittingly supporting theatre groups to practice one-way messaging in the name of ‘edu-tainment.’”

Senior C4D Advisor, NYHQ, Kerida McDonald discusses with Hamid El-Shadir - Photo credit: Baldwin Old — Senior C4D Advisor, NYHQ, Kerida McDonald discusses with Hamid El-Shadir – Photo credit: Baldwin Old

UNICEF is partnering with the Zambian-based Africa Directions, a youth theatre non-governmental organization (NGO) to lead a multi-country mapping exercise and the development of guidelines and tools to ensure that participatory theatre is used effectively to empower communities examine their realities, express their opinions and identify collective solutions to issues affecting them.

Said UNICEF Zambia Representative Hamid El-Bashir Ibrahim, PhD., “In Zambia, we are supporting participatory theatre in schools and communities to address a number of issues, including school dropout and teenage pregnancy. We welcome this workshop which is focusing on defining standards of practice and addressing critical issues such as evaluation. If theatre can bring about results for children, create spaces for them to speak and be heard, and advocate for their rights and life-saving needs, then we need to find mechanisms to scale it up and make it sustainable,” said El-Bashir.

The workshop, which was held from 05-11 July, invited expert guest speakers to provide an overview of the historical and current status of participatory theatre including Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn who shared findings from his recently conducted global literature review of participatory theatre; Alessandro Conceição from Brazil’s Centre of the Theatre of the Oppressed; and Professor Dickson Mwansa Zambian Open University. Participants met in groups to consider the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats for participatory theatre and suggest recommendations for strengthening the practice.

Adrian Maanka, Nat'l Arts Council; Kerida McDonald, Senior Advisor C4D Unicef HQ; Mark Chilongu, Director, Africa Directions; Hon. Esther Banda, Dep. Min. of Culture; Dr. Hamid El-Shadir , Unicef Zambia Rep; Madam Mulenga Kapepwe, Chairman, Nat. Arts Council - Photo credit: Baldwin Old — Adrian Maanka, Nat’l Arts Council; Kerida McDonald, Senior Advisor C4D Unicef HQ; Mark Chilongu, Director, Africa Directions; Hon. Esther Banda, Dep. Min. of Culture; Dr. Hamid El-Shadir , Unicef Zambia Rep; Madam Mulenga Kapepwe, Chairman, Nat. Arts Council – Photo credit: Baldwin Old

“The workshop has provided an eye-opener for all of us. Hearing of country experiences from other African nations and across the world has broadened our awareness of a wide range of models for supporting participatory theatre: through drop-in centres, schools, youth centres, university departments and religious networks. There are also exciting innovations we are learning about such as combining participatory theatre with live TV and doing legislative theatre to influence the development of new laws and policies,” said Africa Directions Excecutive Director, Mark Chilongu.

In partnership with UNICEF Communication for Development Section at the organization’s New York headquarters, Africa Directions will be using the outputs of the workshop to develop a global guide for participatory theatre practitioners. The organization will also begin to serve as a regional centre to improve professional exchanges, networking and capacity development to strengthen the contribution of the application of theatre for development. Funding for the initiative has generously provided to UNICEF by the Government of the Netherlands as part of its global peacebuilding initiative, which in many countries UNICEF is implementing in partnership with the Search for Common Ground.

About UNICEF
UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere. For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org/zambia.

Senior C4D Advisor, NYHQ summarizing the way forward for the Global Participatory Theatre initiative – Photo credit: Baldwin Old

Source: Kerida McDonald, UNICEF

My Safety, My Wellbeing: Equipping adolescent girls with key knowledge and skills to help them to mitigate, prevent and respond to gender based violence (IRC, 2016)

Learning About Living e-Learning programme (OneWorld UK and Butterfly Works, Nigeria 2007-2011)

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