Silent Voices

Well we have survived the week! In fact we did more than survive the week.  We can count it as another successful step on the road to running our own CBO.  Nineteen of the expected participants turned up for the training – some were delayed a little by those unexpected events in family life that one cannot plan for, but made it later in the week.

So on Monday we began a week of energisers and ice breakers, of learning how to give and receive feedback to enable everyone to develop their skills of speaking, reporting back small group work, and facilitating activities. We played games, we discussed what a CBO is and what makes a good organisation.  We developed a list of values to guide the organisation, we discussed why we needed an Executive Committee and we started to grapple with the roles and responsibilities of an Executive Committee.  (This last session was the only one where I looked around and saw a circle of puzzled faces.)

Yes some of it was hard work, some issues we had to re-visit and I am sure we will discuss again and again in the future. Some questions have to yet be answered such as “How will we ensure transparency?”, “How will we communicate with all the members?”. My emphasis was always on helping these parents decide how they would run their organisation rather than on telling them what should happen.

The parents ate, slept, nursed babies, discussed, talked, wrote, drew pictures, drank tea, and lived Silent Voices for a week. Some worried what was happening at home, some enjoyed not having to cook, wash dishes, fetch water etc. They learnt about each other as well as about Silent Voices. They became a group.

As part of developing the parents’ confidence we have planned for the Parent Representatives to facilitate the next Parent Group sessions. We have planned and we have practiced and I hope in three weeks time we will remember how we are going to run these sessions.  I am sure mistakes will be made but they will be their mistakes and they will learn from them.

Hilary, VSO Volunteer