A Report on the World Starts With Me Teacher’s Seminar in Rock High Secondary School, Tororo Held on the 26 th March 2011 Submitted to SchoolNet Uganda By Winnifred Akeso 2011 Table of Contents Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. Pg4 Opening Remarks ………………………………………………………………….. Pg5 Workshop objectives: ………………………………………………………………….. Pg6 Group Discussion and Presentations ………………………………………………………… Pg7 Facilitators Harmonization ………………………………………………………………….. Pg18 Youth Friendly services ………………………………………………………………….. pg22 Online Support Center ………………………………………………………………….. Pg25 Remarks from Head Teacher ……….…………………………………………………………. Pg26 Remarks from the Guest of Honor ………………………………………………………… Pg26 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………….. Pg26 Appendix ………………………………………………………………….. Pg27 2 1 Introduction: Rock High Secondary, Tororo is a School with male and female students. The School is day in nature with affiliated boarding hostels for their students. The School is allocated in the town center nearly at the foot of Tororo rock. This School offers education to a total 4000 students of both Ordinary and Advanced level education. The World Starts With Me [WSWM] program in this School started In 2008 with the aid of the two trained teachers, Mr. Damiano Opio and Mrs. Winifred Babalanda Ochieng. The WSWM is an ICT based adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights SRHR] based program whose implementation started in Uganda with a pilot in three Schools in 2003. With the help of the funding organization-the World Population Foundation [WPF], SchoolNet Uganda, the implementing organization in Uganda has been able to expand the program to 150 Schools across the country, to stretch as far as Tororo where Rock High School among other Schools has embraced the program on a club basis that has at least 80 active students. In this year 2011, the School is one of those that have opted to bring on board the rest of the staff to support their efforts in Sexuality Education to serve at least 4000 students in Tororo With the help of SchoolNet Uganda and the WPF, the Program teachers were able to involve over 60 staff of the School in In-School training on the 26 th Mar 2011. Participants of the seminar included teaching and Non teaching staff, WSWM students, one health personnel from Reproductive Health Uganda, The Head Teacher, and the District Education Officer who was guest on honor. Winnifred Akeso who represented SchoolNet Uganda Some of the participants at the seminar captured events of this day and presents highlights of these events in this report 3 ACTIVITIES OF THE SEMINAR: 2 Introductions and Expectations: The Seminar was opened with anthems of the country and the WSWM program, led by the WSWM students. This morning session was followed with a round of introduction of the participants, both teaching and non teaching staff. They mentioned their name, responsibility in School and an expectation each from the day. In summary, below were the most common expectations of the participants 1. To know what the WSWM means 1 A teacher shares his expectation 2. To learn how to interact with the youth 3. To share with colleague on social problems 4. If “the world starts with me, who does it end with” 5. How useful the WSWM is to him as a teacher and what role can he[teacher] play in the WSWM 6. To know the impact of the WSWM in different lives of the youth 7. How to look after girls well 2 8. How to manage challenges that affect the youth 9. What is involved in the WSWM 10. A Certificate at the end of the workshop 11. An attitude change towards the WSWM 3 12. To be guided on how to approach reproductive Health challenges like sexually transmitted infections The WSWM students that sang the WSWM anthem 13. How to manage Teenage relationships 14. To know means of knowing the challenges that the young people face and how to guide them 1 There were participants that totally did not know what the WSWM meant and had never heard of it in the School. 2 An Expectation from the School matron that suggests the willingness to learn to help better. 3 An Expectation from one of the WSWM teachers basing on the fact that some teachers had a negative perception about the sexuality messages that the WSWM offers the students. 4 3 Opening Remarks: Remarks from the Deputy Head Teacher Shortly after the expectations were shared, the Deputy Head Teacher, Mr. Gabriel Obonyo flagged the workshop, officially started. In his remarks, he found it a privilege that the seminar was taking place in their School. He pointed out that indeed their expectations were an indication that they really needed the WSWM in the School. That, the teachers “must indeed be changed!” He tasked them to ponder on what changes they would want to see put in their work; family and friends. The Deputy also elaborated on the meaning and history of the WSWM. From him participants learnt that the program started in 2003 as a Ministry of Education and Sports health Project. He stressed and justified its importance as a comprehensive program that guides and educated young people on the challenges that affect their growth and development process- the reason it has spread, to many Schools. In Tororo for instance, he sighted Tororo Girls School, Tororo College and Rock High School as some of the Schools with the WSWM program. He further urged them to, as they teach, be informed that their young people face many challenges that hinder their academic performance. He cited examples of challenges like Stigma against young positives, Teenage pregnancy and Drug use that the students struggle with. As he closed his remarks, he welcomed the participants to the seminar, the representative from School Net and officially declared the Seminar started. 5 4 Workshop Objectives Mr. Damiano, One of the WSWM Co-facilitator explained the workshop objectives to the participants to include:- 1) To create a positive attitude in the teachers of St. Katherine towards sexuality education in particular the WSWM for both the students and the teachers. 2) To provide these teachers an opportunity to brainstorm the Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) challenges faced by their students and to come up with possible solutions to these challenges 3) To appreciate the need for student peer educators in communicating sexuality education with fellow young people and the need for providing a supportive environment for peer educators to carry out their work. 4) To educate the teachers in St. Katherine about the WSWM program, its content, how the WSWM provides a social vaccine to the sexuality challenges of their students and the benefits of WSWM to both teachers and students. 5) To help the Schools identify the strength of the WSWM program over other sexuality programs in Schools. 6) To introduce the teachers to the WSWM online support so that they can refer students to the support centre for additional support to their SRHR questions. 7) To create a working relationship between the Schools, the teachers and the healthy workers at the health centers and the Youth Friendly centers within the communities where the Schools are located so that teachers can refer the students to these centers for more information and services. 6 5 Group Discussions and Presentations Two Groups each made presentations on the same sets of questions from Section A and Section B. Participants were randomly grouped into 4 groups. Each group The four groups in session, each with a was as well allocated a facilitator to guide and keep in line with Co-facilitator to guide them the discussions, in this arrangement- the health service provider was allocated a group , the two WSWM teachers each got a group and the forth was allocated to the Deputy Head Teacher [who was as well the representing Administrator around] Each participant was also facilitated with the set of questions to work with and the groups given one hour each to share their opinions and make their presentation. Section A: Presentations Questions Answered Include:- (i) What is sexuality? (ii) What is sexuality education? (iii) Should the youth be provided with sexuality education and who should provide this sexuality education? (iv) What Sexuality Education do young people need? (v) Should Schools provide comprehensive sexuality education to students? If yes, why? If no, why? (vi) What topics /areas which should be covered under Sexuality Education for students. (vii) What challenges are the Schools facing/will face in providing sexuality education to students? (viii) What can the Schools do to address the challenges of providing sexuality education to Schools? 7 Group 1 Presentation: I. In group 1, Sexuality was defined as being male or female. To mean the healthy state of the psychological/physical/emotional social self. II. The team perceived sexuality education in three ways. They said:- a. Sexuality Education is creation of awareness of our sex, how to accept and appreciate being male or female b. That, It is a lifelong process through which humans are given skills to enable then to live as themselves[thus, male or female] c. And, a Process of acquiring skills, knowledge and attitude III. With regards to Question iii] The youth should be provided with sexuality education, they said and that for the simple reason that each of the listed people below involve with the youth at a certain point Mentioned among those to provide the sexuality Education included: Teachers, parents, religious leaders, professional counselors, politicians, health workers, opinion leaders, social workers, peer educators and positive peers IV. On the kind of education the young need, they said knowledge and guidance on the following was needed:- a. Body changes that the youth experience such as, boys getting voice breaks, beards, breasts developing for girls, and other body shape changes. A participant expresses her opinion b. Relationship management thus, boy/girl ; boy/boy; girl/girl, cross generational relationships c.