Life Skills is another project or program promoted by Better Me as part of our pillows. In general, it means to give mental and spiritual support. To prepare youths to their life, train them in self-awareness, self-esteem and other things important in life. These sessions took place on each Friday morning at the St. Williams Learning Center, a school similar to ours in Korando.
Once students have finished their daily assembly, we started our work for one hour. Along with other various volunteers I have joined grade 7 and 8.
It was more less an open discussion round where we talked about several topics together with the learners. We brought in the topics unless those young people have requested specific topics of their own. Since we are involved in many other projects at various places we generate plenty of input and ideas of what we could talk about. We always encouraged the students to actively take part in these sessions.
Already in earlier classes it turned out that the students seemed to be very shy, although they were highly interested in any discussed topic. For the topics itself however, volunteers did have free rein. Amongst others we brought up the following topics:
Life skills
We engaged the students to name any life skill that comes to their mind and to write it down on the board. Afterwards we discussed some of the skills such as “confidence” and “self-awareness”. Especially what it means and how to achieve and/or maintain these skills. This includes a personal goal for this year and we encouraged the students to define a such one for themselves and to write it down to their personal notes.
Manage emotions
Particularly this topic was highly relevant since Maddalena, a fellow volunteer from Italy, has been asked to talk about at other occasions already. Specifically she has been asked to talk about “control emotions”. She pointed out to rather “manage emotions” than to control them. Control mostly brings no changes in a useful way. We encouraged the students to point out emotions. According to Maddalena there are 5 general questions one should ask oneself to manage bad emotions. For instance: “What happened to make me feel this way?” We went through all these questions too.
Talking to an audience
The purpose of this activity was to train the students to talk in front of an audience as part of the “Life Skills” project. This can be relevant for oral examinations, future assignments at the university, job applications or even in a job. Since this session is a talk in front of the audience it was held as an example. From the list of things advised to do or to avoid some simple examples were demonstrated visually as part of the session. Amongst others the following topics were covered:
- general appearance
- how to build / keep up self-esteem
- how to prepare and to handle prepared notes
- interaction with the audience (talking, eye contact and body language)
- techniques (pace, tone, pausing)
- how to practice and to learn online from other speakers
At this point I could bring a lot of experience as a consultant who often speaks to an audience. The only difference was the topic and the age group. However, during this session students were also encouraged to observe me as the speaker. In addition, I have also demonstrated what a speaker should avoid. All in a funny and (hopefully) entertaining way.
Since it went very well we decided to re-do this at our Korando Educational Center with grade 7 and 8. At times it was useful to get support by locals to translate some information to Swahili if some of the students could not follow. Thanks to Dianne who has joined Better Me temporarily for her internship.
Sports
Like for most of the sessions this one was opened by a quick game as well. Like a quiz. The longer it has lasted, the more students got active and enjoyed it. That was a good ice breaker. And they have used techniques we taught them during earlier sessions. Nice to see that it works. Students have lost some nervousness to talk to us in front of the others. It has helped a lot.
With regards to sports this session was inspired by Zoe, another fellow volunteer from the United States. Together with the students we discussed what kind of sports they are aware of, what kind of sport they’re actively doing and love. And why they love it. And we asked them the following:
- How do you feel before, during and after sport?
- What is your reason to do sports?
- What benefits do you see in sports (physical, mentally, emotionally)?
Kenya is home of many successful and famous runners. As a sportsman it was a pleasure to also talk about them, for instance Eliud Kipchoge, a Kenyan runner, record holder and in fact the most successful runner in history. Of course he is known to many of the students. Personally, this outstanding athlete is a role model to me. I have explained why and how he became such a successful athlete. I was proud to share that I saw him (Eliud Kipchoge) in person on the track as part of the Berlin Marathon when I chased him by road bike and had my difficulties doing so. 😁
In addition, I was very happy to share personal experiences and tips in terms of sports and healthy lifestyle. It was also highly appreciated to talk about the unhealthy thing and to avoid any abuse (alcohol, nicotine, drugs). A long life provides a lot of memories and experiences, some of them I have shared and the audience, including some teachers were gratefully listening and happy that we spoke explicitly about these things. This is to help to keep the young people on the righteous path.
Although most students appeared to be shy or too respectful during classes, outside of the classroom they’re so relaxed, happy, and so super excited. They’re grateful and show it to us. After each session there’s a kind of gathering on the school yard which quickly turned into a kind of celebration and mass hugging. What a wonderful moment of shared happiness. So lovely and a great start into a new day. In fact into the weekend since it was always the Friday we been there, despite of a few other classes that we had to run.
It always has been a wonderful and perfect start into a new day. So much joy and happiness among the young people, that was both incredibly exciting and contagious. Right after these sessions we were flooded by positive vibes and energy, that was amazing. Each Friday, right after our Session here at the St. Williams school we went over to the Remand Home, where we used to be on Mondays and Fridays for English classes and on Wednesdays for Life Skills.
Another interesting fact of this school was the way how they remind the learners to remain focused and “on the righteous path”. I liked it.
Leave a Reply