Trainers follow community leadership workshop |25 November 2011

It is the brainchild of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports and was conducted by local consultant Benjamin Vel.

Present at its launch was director general for community development Dan Frichot and programme director in the department, Betty-Mai Sopha.

Mr Frichot said the programme aims to teach trainers, with the aim of “passing on community leadership knowledge to groups of volunteers within a community”.

The department felt a strong need for this type of training, he said.

“We have been working on this project for a while now and we have just managed to finalise the trainer’s manual earlier this year, thanks to a devoted committee which took the time to brainstorm on relevant issues,” he said.

He thanked committee members Colette Servina from the National Volunteering Committee, director of Care Robert Ah-Weng, Mr Vel, and other key members he said played a big part in developing the programme.

Mrs Sopha said the workshop is one of the community development’s initiatives to help de-centralise their programmes and services.

“Many times we have people working with us on a voluntary basis in the community but they are not equipped with the knowledge of the programme so we decided – along with local consultants and partners – to help by giving the skills needed so these volunteers can do their jobs more effectively,” she said, adding they felt it was the department’s duty to ensure work carried out in the districts is standardised.

She said another part of the training is financial management and that the programme will ensure the needs of people in communities are recognised by volunteers who will in turn help bring residents of the communities together to take part in decision making to improve their districts.

Mr Frichot said he is satisfied with the level at which the delegates took part in the training.