Training of Trainers

Left-to-right: Sonia, Malavanh, Taffese, Daovy, Blanaid

This week we completed the Training of Trainers in preparation for our second PAHW training workshop. The Ecohealth team met with colleagues from the District Agriculture and Forestry Office, the University’s Faculty of Agriculture, and Environment, as well as the District health clinic, some of whom have been training and mentoring the PAHWs over the past six months.

Kolakoth and Daovy playing the balloon game

The objective of this 3-day workshop was to strengthen the mentors’ capacity in participatory learning techniques, to develop the content for the PAHW training and to brainstorm ideas for the Community Health Days that are being planned for this autumn. Participatory learning is particularly important in this context where the purpose of the work is to improve villagers’ practical skills. It also recognizes that the learners already possess a great deal of knowledge and allows them to exchange this information with the trainers and each other. The training emphasized how important it is for discussions and presentations to be interactive, and for participants to have fun! Everybody got their heart beat racing while playing the balloon game on the first day. As well as being a chance to play and laugh together, this was a lesson in cooperation and communication skills.

Chicken post mortem

Left-to-right: Tongtem (DAFO), Keo (DAFO), Taffese (VSF), Dehtaloon (NUOL)

The trainers also learned some new practical skills through Taffese’s laboratory session on “How to do a post mortem examination”. The trainers were very interested to enhance their diagnostic skills and are eager to pass this knowledge onto the PAHWs.