Radio Programme- MOP Vaishnav College

MOP Vaishnav college for women have a FM radio station which serves the community of 5 kms radius around the college. They are doing a 22 week programme on prevention of HIV transmission from parents to children. I was the first studio guest when they launched the programme on June 26th and was invited again for their 10th episode on 28th August.

This is a call in programme and many people called to ask their doubts about HIV/AIDS.

Parenting Workshop - Olcott memorial School Chennai, August 27th 2008

Parenting Workshop - Olcott memorial School Chennai, August 27^th 2008

Parents of the 9^th and 10^th standard students participated in the Workshop. Most of the women were working as Domestics workers, one of the man in the group was an Auto driver. Many topics were discussed. It was seen that the parents had a good insight about the issues which we planned to discuss irrespective of their educational and family background. A good discussion took place and a lot of points were contributed by the participants. They were more aware of the reality and the expectations from their children and also said that they were making an effort to meet the needs of their children inspite of their situation and circumstances.

We focused on some issues like what the parents face in bringing up the children of this age group and also issues like what they think children have.

The Developmental Mile stone for this age group (Middle Adolescents ) was discussed and presented to the group and also points and tips on some of the strategies useful in bringing up the Children.

Four day Workshop- Approaches to working with Children for Child Haven, August 21st to August 24th

Center for Counselling conducted a four day Workshop in Child Haven Kaliyampoondi, Kanchipuram District. The participants were from different branches of Child Haven.

For more information on Child haven international please look up www.childhaven.ca

Our participants were from : Tamil Nadu, New Delhi, Gujarat, Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh, and Bangladesh and two observers from Canada.

Participants were caregivers, manager, accountant- from varied backgrounds.

The resource persons for the workshop were

1. Mr Eric Miller, Professor - Image Animation College and the Founder of the World Storytelling Institute.
   
2. Ms. Magdalene Jeyarathnam - Counsellor and Founder of CFC.
   
3. Ms. Thamilarasi.S - Training manager, CFC
   
4. Ms. G. Chandra – consultant for CFC and a theatre artist
   
5. Ms. Mrinalini Sekhar – consultant for CFC on creative movement
   
6. Ms. Roshini Kumar– Full time Counsellor and works part time with CFC
   

Certificates were distributed at the end of 4 days by Ms. Bonnie Cappuccino, International Director- Child Haven

The feedback and evaluation we received from the participants

“The workshop was very positive, very accepting of various view points, not judgmental, everybody had a good time and because of the group activities bonded together….”

– Bonnie Cappuccino, International Director- Child Haven.

“It is the first time I enjoyed such session and I really like it so far and I hope I might be able to get a chance in future for such workshops. Few points that I learnt is that I never had any idea that by story or drawing or drama can bring out picture of life. So I liked all those ideas…” - Saiful, Coordinator, Child Haven Bangladesh.

“This workshop is wonderful. This workshop session is very interesting to our child haven whole family..”- S.B.Irudhayanathan, Child Haven Kaliyampoondi Village, Kanchipuram Dist.

“The workshop was really very good, I learnt many things. Though I attended many different counselling but this workshop was very good, which I can remember always. I would like to attend such counselling always and always…”- Mary Solomon, Child Haven Andhra Pradesh.

“I learnt many things through this workshop specially the importance of Art, Story and Drama… No doubt you all have opened my eyes. I believe it will make a great difference in reaching all our Child Haven International to their own goal..”- Dawa, Child Haven New Delhi

“The workshop was very good and helpful to children and adults. I learnt from the team many things that are important in my life..”- Kala Barot , Child Haven Gujarat

“This workshop was good. I learnt that how to live with children and how to teach them, like through games, arts, etc and activities and games were very good…”- Prakash D. Patil, Child Haven Maharashtra

Stress and Anger Management Workshop July 26th to July 29th 2008

Various topics were covered in the workshop that increased one's awareness of personal stressors and the triggers of anger and stress. Participatory learning techniques like exercises, games were used to overcome stress and anger.

Yoga, creative movements and relaxation techniques were some of the strategies used to overcome stress.

Some of the feedback from the participants was

“The workshop was excellent ..I have no words to express….. I learnt to maintain and stay calm, live without stress and some points (tips) for that was very useful, Self care, handling of critical situation, excellent guided imaginary, modern yoga , balanced diet and its necessity was great. It was a great opportunity to analysis everything with Ms. Magdalene. … I liked the methodology … Hospitality and everything was in the top most position. …But I felt that the workshop was short …..” – Shiva kumar, Sangama, Chennai

“This workshop was very good and very useful for life…. The few points I learnt was what is stress? How it affects us, What is anger and how it affects us. .. Ho w to handle stress…… Importance of exercises…... .. How to solve problems………..The games and activities in the workshop was very good and very useful………The food was very good and the training space was very good……… everything was good and it was very useful and important personally to me………..” – Sundar , Sahodaran, Chennai

Mrinalini Sekar Life style Management consultant facilitated the creative movement session

Some of the feedback were

• Activities were very deep and lots of emotions came out, it could have been nice if one issue is discussed among stress. (Just a suggestion)
• Theory about morning session was very very important. Tips about food, diet, exercise were very informative.
• Very intense and internal thinking triggers with activities, so as a therapist how to take care.
• On the whole Stress and Anger was released and thought provoking.

- Geethu Pappu, Chennai

• The session was wonderful on lifestyle management. The importance of physical fitness was well explained. Especially the lifestyle clouds exercise was wonderful; it made me realize my stress points.... Simple exercises were thought (Easy practice at home).

- Mohan Babu, Hoper's Foundation

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.

Day Three

The morning session was on Art therapy. All the participants enthusiastically participated in all the exercises in painting, drawing and using charcoal. This session was lead by Magdalene Jeyarathnam our founder.

The afternoon session was on dance/ movement therapy - this session was lead by Mrinalini Sekhar. The participants did some very interesting exercises which got them to think about themselves.