The Launch of Bany Akolda Leadership Training
We try all possible ways to give our students a solid educational foundation that will help them to approach life with confidence. HOPE operates in a context where many young people lack opportunities for secondary education and those who do, often lack hands-on practical skills and attitudes to push through life. Many young people in Ariang, South Sudan graduate from high school with very little knowledge beyond abstract rote learning in the classroom. Moreover, their experiential learning most often limited to their agrarian and pastoralist social context.
Having noticed these adversities that hold back youth-led programs, we introduced a leadership training component to our Scholarship Empowerment Program called, Bany Akolda Seminar. We officially launched this program in June where we kicked off our first session of training that will continue over their four years in high school.
“Identifying personal skill sets (strengths & weaknesses), developing a growth mindset, writing personal and academic SMART goals, and book reading with discussion”
From June 21st to 22nd, we engaged all nine SEP Scholars in rigorous training on identifying personal skill sets (strengths & weaknesses), developing a growth mindset, writing personal and academic SMART goals, and book reading with discussion.
We started each session with ice-breakers that focused on getting the learners to project their voices and maintain good eye contact with the audience. We played Jenga communication tower game to help Scholars to learn how to ask good questions as they progress through their studies. Even though many of our SEP Scholars perform well in class, we observed they have weak interpersonal skills. We helped them to improve their communication skills by training them on good storytelling techniques and public speaking presentation.
“Reading the book A Long Walk To Water for two main reasons: to identify how characters of the book portray 21st-century skills and to introduce a book-reading culture so that our students develop their English reading comprehension and a general love for reading”
Part of the leadership training includes reading the book A Long Walk To Water for two main reasons: to identify how characters of the book portray 21st-century skills and to introduce a book-reading culture so that our students develop their English reading comprehension and a general love for reading.
During the second day of training, Kim Buchanan who is a teacher in the United States joined us and helped a great deal with describing some of the vocabularies. Kim had brought with her a huge wealth of knowledge about A Long Walk To Water. While in the US, she had contacted her fellow teacher who teaches the same book to her middle school students. The fellow teacher shared with us a thumb drive of useful content on the book. It was amazing to have Kim in the training and having her to physically ‘copycat’ some events so that Scholars could comprehend difficult words and explanations. Kim also served as an example of a woman with high academic qualifications. Many women in the Ariang community are usually viewed as housekeepers and often denied educational opportunities compared to men.
Greatest Accomplishments
