Itsekiri NextGen Session 4 Summary Report
- Date: Saturday 13/11/2021
- Number of volunteers present: Five (5)
- Number of Participants present: Fifty (50)
- Time: 09:00am – 12:30pm
- Venue: Former Caravan 4, Aji Pessu, Warri
- Main Topic: Social Etiquette / Dealing with challenges
- Resource Persons: Uwala Tedeye and Ulisanmi Pessu
Summary of the Session
The fourth session of the Itsekiri NextGen project was held on the 13th of November 2021. The session began with a parade. Participants were made to walk in front of the Coordinator and volunteers and those who dragged feet on the floor were separated from those who did not.
The purpose of the task was to introduce the participants to the concept of basic etiquette such as;
Walking properly with less slappy noise by lifting their feet from the floor when walking instead of dragging them on the floor,
Being courteous and its benefits at all times,
Calling or addressing people by their names as against dog-whistling, Chewing with mouths closed.
At this point, they were made to understand the reason for the initial parade, that it is proper to lift their feet from the floor while walking.
The participants were made to understand the importance and value of being themselves at all times instead of trying to be someone else. The emphasis here is to highlight the value in their unique and authentic attributes.
Second Topic of the Session
The second topic of the session was used to introduce the concept of challenges and how to approach and deal with them in their everyday lives.
The participants were introduced to a universal truth of life challenges. That is, they will go through one form of challenge over the course of their lifetime. For this session, the types of challenges were narrowed down to “domestic” and “academic” challenges.
Prior to this, a task was given asking participants if they find themselves in a desert, how will they survive? Answers such as; I will just die, I will pray, I will run away. Another participant said he will dig the ground to get water and kill any animal he finds there to eat so he can have strength.
A video clip of how a chicken challenged a dog was shown to them. Instead of the chicken running away as is expected of a chicken, the chicken faced the dog who couldn’t help but run away after seeing the resistance from the chicken. While there are times one has to identify a certain challenge may create life and death scenarios, certain challenges can be handled with by finding ways to achieve a positive outcome.
Another video clip focused on understanding the problem with hunter and eve was shown. Here is the backstory to the video;
Due to rainfall, the regular route to their school got flooded. They settled down to understand the problem and thought about a solution. Solutions that involved;
- Staying behind,
- Cutting a tree which eventually hit the rock and sunk, and
- Trying to jump was thought about but it wasn’t feasible.
They wanted to give up but encouraged themselves to keep trying until something works. They finally concluded on taking an alternative but long route which has a bridge. That brought a solution to their challenge.
The coordinator and volunteers talked about different personal challenges they have encountered and how they were able to come out better and stronger.
A task was given to them to talk about the challenges they face in school or at home. One of the participants gave a sad challenge. He said his teacher always flogs him whenever the class is noisy, not minding if he was quiet or not because he is the class prefect. The participants were made to proffer solutions to the participant’s challenge. They were asked to write the solutions on sticky notes. A picture of the solutions written on sticky notes can be seen above.
Additional Topic Explored
New vocabularies were introduced to them
Key Lesson Learned
The need, value of, and how to be courteous at all times. They were also taught how to approach a challenge when faced with one and encouraged not to give up in the face of challenges.
