Rekha, Saanya, Surabhi and Vivek share their experiences from Training for Trainers (T4T) in Manila, Philippines

INDIA TEAM AT T4T MANILA:

• Saanya Gupta- Gold Holder and Award Volunteer since 2009
• Surabhi Vaidya- Gold participant and Award Volunteer since August 2011
• Rekha Dey- Head of YES Project since November 2011
• Vivek Gaur- Award Leader (since August 2011) at NAZ Foundation 

Saanya's Topic for Presentation: "Selling the Award to either corporates or NGOs or the Government."

"My partner was Tessie, a participant from Philippines. It was a challenging topic for both of us. Athough we introduced The Award fairly well, we forgot to cover quite a few loopholes. Hence this exercise was huge learning."

Vivek's Topic for Presentation: "Introducing the Award program to a group of Parents & Teachers."

"My partner Cynthia and I actually enjoyed our presentation a lot. We played couple of role plays, such as of a "Time machine Ginnie" and of a "Happy Mother"  to take the parents back in the memory lane and illicit from them the best thing they enjoyed when they were younger, and how enjoyable life would have been had they continued their passion as their profession; and then mapped their expectation from their kids with the Award sections. We worked around the emotional angle of the parents." 

Rekha's Topic for presentation: ‘The Adventurous journey’

"My co-presenter Rich was amazingly creative while I added with my set of skills to put together a presentation on the topic. It was a mixture of power point, flip charts and using the white board. We started with a picture gallery on the screen with ‘Mission Impossible’ music playing behind. We also organized an activity inside the room. An exploration – we placed different coloured ice-cream sticks (a bundle) at various places inside the room – on top of lights, behind the tea/coffee stand, underneath the chair etc. and participants were asked to find it and record the number and colour of the sticks collected in a tally chart.

We did face some personal challenges of time keeping and using the right words/jargons. To overcome this we first prepared a schedule with the exact flow and time (in minutes) for each part of the 25 min. presentation. To ensure that we use the right words, I once again read carefully the section on adventurous journey in the handbook."

Surabhi's Topic for Presentation: "How to train activity coaches to take forward the Award Programme in respective institutions"

"I faced a few challenges while preparing for the presentation. Being a student, I had to think  from a teacher's point of view so that I could present better. Also, as we were the last pair to present we had the disadvantage of being reviewed more strictly but we also had the advantage of more time than other pairs to prepare for it. 

We tried to include all training methods which was a bit difficult considering that ours was a bit of a technical topic which included things like filling and signing of record books etc. So, for the presentation we gave an introduction about the award, an activity coach's experience, explained how to fill the record book which was also an activity for the rest of the participants." 

Bea Fancisco-1st Gold Awardee from the Philippines
with Gold Participant Surabhi and Gold Holder Saanya 

Recounting, Vivek says that the T4T definitely helped him become mentally aware about the Award program to relate to daily things. Similary, Saanya and Surabhi felt that as young people and Award Leaders in their respective colleges the T4T helped them know the Award better and get more confident about presenting to other peers. Rekha added that "the idea of different groups presenting different topics is really good in T4T as it gives an opportunity to presenters as well as listeners to learn from each other and the kind of questions and innovative techniques used can be truly useful."

Rekha shared enthusiastically that the 'best thing' she liked about the Workshop was an activity in the presentation by one of the groups on Service section in the Award. The two presenters asked us to stand in a circle. A ball of string was to be passed/ thrown to each person who would state an example of service and pass it to another person randomly. At the end a cob was formed and considering all the examples stated by each it was reiterating to the basic principle of why service was an essential part of the award programme. 

SOME IMPACT STUDIES ABOUT THE AWARD:

Visit page 4, narration of a mother Eunsuk Kim whose daughter did the silver

http://www.iayp.in/whatsnew/Award%20World%20issue%2064.pdf

2)     Visit page 4, story of Julius Irungu Krush, grown from Mathare slums  

http://www.theaward.bm/sitedocs/International%20Award%20World%20Magazine%20Issues/Award%20World%20issue%2062%20-%20Apr%2010.pdf   

3)     Visit page 4, story of Khadraa Glenn, an Iraqi Muslim girl living in Australia and her experience in Camp Bucca

http://awardbg.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Award-World-63.pdf

Rekha Dey, Saanya Gupta, Vivek Gaur and Surabhi Vaidya (Left to Right)

"The T4T Workshop was a great experience. I really liked the activities that we were given to do."

- Saanya Gupta

"The best thing about the T4T Manila was the comfort level that the presenters built with the participants. The training was very intercative and an experience which I'll cherish forever."

- Surabhi Vaidya 

"The Workshop was really good and encouraging. If possible, T4T should organize homogenous groups in terms of their background. At Manila most of the participants were school teachers or students; one or two were adventure partners."

- Rekha Dey

" It was wonderful to be part of this Asia pacific region T4T training, The one important take away was the Gardner's Multiple Intelligence learning approach to keep in mind while organizing a Training workshop."

- Vivek Gaur