JUNTOS WORKSHOP 2012

JUNTOS workshops happened in June and July.  I was fortunate enough to be able to work and help out with two workshops, one in Gaza province and one in Maputo province. At each conference participants from 5-6 local JUNTOS groups were invited to participate.  At the Gaza conference we had 8 participants from each group, 5 facilitators, a tech trainer, and an enthusiastic group of volunteers present.  The weekend consists of educational and informational sessions on topics like self esteem, leadership, HIV and AIDS, gender equality, sexual health, and more!  The workshops are a lot of work in the weeks before: buying all of the food, arranging someone to cook, getting the t-shirts made, and making sure everyone is prepared!

At the workshop each group leader facilitates some of the sessions and the tech trainer deals with the more information sensitive sessions (HIV and AIDS, sexual health, gender).  The tech trainer was wonderful in terms of technical experience.  He is a musician and works at a music school so taught the kids songs about HIV and got their creative juices running in terms of other art projects.  In terms of the HIV and AIDS education part, he wasn’t completely prepared and I had to jump in and run some sessions, but in all it was fun!  I used to have such a fear of public speaking especially for a large number of people, but I think that my two years of teaching (in Portuguese) for classes of up to 80 kids has cured me!  The kids had a really great time.  The only down side is that we have so much information to cover, that the kids don’t get as much free time as they’d like.  The solution?  A group of the participants woke up at 4am every morning to get a game of soccer in before breakfast (seriously). 

The workshop only lasts 3 days, but at the end the kids were all hugging and exchanging numbers like they had been at summer camp for months.  Although somewhat exhausting, it’s great as a volunteer to be able to expose the kids that I work with to new experiences.  Here are some pictures of the whole group!