5 rounds of Parents Meetings, and two times a week residential trainings with the potential committee have been conducted by Hilary. Topics as ‘A Community Based Organisation’, ‘Values of the organisation’, ‘Task of a Committee’ have passed in very creative ways.

The blogs were also posted by Hilary… that task is now falling back to me – Nathalie- the patron of the organisation… if i am as good in it, and as faithfull as Hilary… the future will learn!!

Nathalie

So another week of Parent Group meetings has been completed. I really enjoy going out to the see the Parent Groups now as we know each other and feel comfortable together. I am always greeted so warmly. We had great fun miming the tasks that parents have to do for their families and then linking this responsibility to the responsibility of a Committee to do certain tasks for the organisation. Each group then made a collage of pictures depicting the tasks that we have identified for the Committee.

On the last two days we were accompanied by some Student Lions from Norway who are on an exchange visit to Uganda. They really enjoyed the journey up into the mountains of Buhweju and the next day to Kigarama, and participating in the meetings. These young people are on a repeat visit to our project as they are raising money back in Norway for us to establish a piggery as an income generating project. We hope that in the future this project will provide an income to cover Silent Voices’ costs and also help to raise the income level of its members. Terry was busy filming so that he can produce a video about Silent Voices to help in the fund raising and they are so enthusiastic it was a real pleasure to have them here.

Hilary, Project Volunteer

It was a very exciting week for us – we were going to see the Parent Representatives in action as facilitators. It turned out to be a roller coaster week: some Parent Representatives were excellent – well prepared and confident; some were less confident and needed reminding to speak up; one set had forgotten it was this week that they were in action but soon remembered their parts; one set had prepared pictures and further improvised on what we had planned; at one school only one of the three Parent Representatives was present and the attendance was disappointingly low which was worrying; but the next day we went deep into the hills to the most remote of our schools and found a room full of parents already on their second session of sign language lessons.

I think that day at Butare was the most exciting. All these parents walk a long way to be present at Silent Voices’ meetings and one of the facilitators walked 4-5 hours in each direction. The three facilitators divided the session between them and led a thorough and very professional workshop. That day we drove home with our hearts singing. The next day we were also at a remote school in a low income area and again we had an excellent turn out.

Perhaps it is because in these remote areas the parents get less support and so Silent Voices means more to them. The parents in the schools near the main road are more used to getting help from various NGOs etc. We are not sure of the reasons – we just know that we have some parents in all the schools who are really well motivated but that at the two most remote schools we have many more parents who turn up and participate.

Overall the Parent Representatives did really well. At every school they had re-arranged the desks so that people sat in a circle rather than the classroom style rooms that they used to have. At every school they ran energisers without my help. Only at one school did I really step in and give them lots of support – everywhere else I was able to sit back and watch and just deliver the part I had planned. I was reluctant to step in when I did but those parents deserved to get as good a workshop as all the others and these particular Parent Representatives will need more support than the others.

During the week we developed a different analogy to explain a Community Based Organisation. A CBO is a tree planted in the community which needs care and weeding and watering and protecting. It will grow slowly and if looked after properly will grow strong. Eventually the fruits of the tree will grow and drop back into the community in which it is planted. This analogy really made sense to the groups we were working with and actually came out of the discussions during the week.

The evaluation of the residential week was very positive – in particular we learned that participants were very happy not to sit through a week of lectures and try to make lots of notes. Our participatory style of training was really appreciated. But of course we also learnt that there are some aspects that we need to work on before the next residential. Of course there are always some issues when working with people from a different cultural background and I try to be careful not to impose my cultural norms on the sessions.

The parents also really enjoyed coming to the District Office to see the information about Silent Voices and about Deaf Child Worldwide on the internet. For many of them it was the first time to see material over the internet and they loved to see their photographs – I am not sure if they all really appreciated that everyone round the world can also see them.

Now we are also planning for our next Parent Group meetings. I am particularly excited to see how the next week of meetings will go as they are going to be facilitated by the Parent Representatives, with my support where needed. For the Parent Representatives this will be the first time they have facilitated such an activity. We have planned the programme and they have practiced presenting it, but I think it will be more challenging for them when they face their parent groups. I see this as part of their personal development which is an important part of capacity building.

I will let you know how it goes!

Hilary

VSO Volunteer with Silent Voices

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

a group of people who have never worked with Hilary before (the project volunteer)… a part ot the group who do not speak or hear English, a part of the group who has never been to Bushenyi Town before, a part … etc etc…

we have a programme of 5 day’s concentrating around

- personal development

- team developement

- and organisational development…

Hilary is ready to do the facilitation, i am ready to do the observations: how will it go!!??

nathalie

Patron of Silent Voices

‘Silent Voices’ was present on the District Day for People with Disabilities, Women, and Youth! and not just ‘present’ we performed a song and a poem to the delegates!!

The invitation came on Wednesday, and the function was to be on Saturday… not much time left, more over  the children had just gone home from the school break!! But!! we really saw a great chance of making some noise for our brand new organisation here… so with some quick phone conversations we decided to attend with as few as 10 children and do whatever we could manage. (Parents were ‘left out’ there we had no means to communicate to them in just some days!).

Me – I had to run to town to transform an old bed sheet into a banner for use in the Parade which was noted in the programme. The County Coordinators of Sheema at Ishekye Primary school had the task of keeping children at school on Friday – when they were to come and collect their reports – and then to practice a performance in just one evening!!

But all in all: WE WERE THERE!! we performed and we left an unforgettable impression on the delegates and general public!

Let me try to add the photos on this blog – do not forget… we are new… even here on the blog… everything is a big adventure!

nathalie

patron of Silent Voices

We work in Bushenyi – a district in the South West of Uganda.

Being so new we virtually have to learn everything. And that learning proces is what we want to blog about!! You can follow our learning, and extract lessons from it, you can help us learning by posting comments with helpful tips??

This is just an introduction message! During next week we want to fill up the pages we made, and start blogging about our activities!

We hope to get in contact with many others who work for the better of the world of Deaf Children!!

Nathalie

Patron of ‘Silent Voices’