50 Youth Shaken and Stirred

On Sunday R. and I put on a workshop for the various youth groups and organizations in Plaridel. In our research we were finding that it is not common for youth or leaders to collaborate, coordinate or socialize across group and organization 'boundaries'. We wondered what might happen if we invited 50-odd youth (no adults allowed) from a variety of organizations and across socio-economic layers to participate in a day long workshop to be held on Sunday.

The municipality/school system allowed us to use a large room at a local elementary school and we collectively (all of the UBC students) or we, Raquel and I, funded the supplies, drinking water, lunch and merienda (2 snacks). Food is important, here and everywhere.

40 youth showed up and it was like 'sock-hop' day (do they have those anymore?) in any elementary school - clusters of people standing close together, stealing glances at each other (and of course their cell phones as this is the texting centre of the universe). We eventually persuaded them to join one of the four circles around the room and the adventure began.

We had promised them fun because we wanted to demonstrate that you can learn and laugh/have fun at the same time. Some of the youth haven't been in school for a time and all of them spoke Tagalog better than English (if not only Tagalog!) and all of them were smarter than us in terms of what works in the Philippines.

Our objective was to mix it up as much as we could and have them participate in substantive exercises so that they would hopefully break down some of the barriers that seem to exist. We also wanted to collect information FROM them so the morning was split into four topic areas (Transportation and Land Use, Sustainable Livelihoods, Solid Waste Management and Informal Settlements) and the youth were consulted by our fellow students (7 of 10 of them were part of the day and we COULD NOT have done it without them!).

We made sure that all the exercises were participatory. I even transformed the 'Build a Racist Community" exercise into "Build the Cleanest/Most Polluted Community" for the Solid Waste Management group - it worked like a charm!!!

This is a picture of the Most Polluted Barangay (Neighbourhood) and the youth who participated in creating it. They are explaining to the group how rules, institutions and structures support the neighbourhood to be polluted.

There were some highs and of course, some lows. Trying to conduct a training in a participatory way is much harder when interpretation is involved. And even with interpretation, the exercise might not work. Roleplaying games were the most challenging to implement.

One of the fun games that was also about collaboration and teamwork was "Knots". If you've played it, you know what I mean, if not, try and imagine being in a circle with five to ten people

holding the hands of two different people across from you and then trying to untangle yourself without any hands getting unjoined!

The youth told us after that it was the first such training they had ever been to and asked if we would provide other training. They said they enjoyed meeting their peers but that this was only just the first step. They told us that they wish they had the skills to be as involved as they'd like to be in their country.

Random: Here is a video of youth associated with an "Out of School Youth" organization (some of them pictured above). They performed a number of dance numbers as part of our welcome (last week). I include it because they are so good and they only had a few days notice to create this.

I started this post on Sunday and I am finishing it on Wednesday. Today we had a meeting/workshop with the adults involved in youth development planning - municipal staff and NGO staff/volunteers were invited. It was a very good afternoon. I think we moved forward a few steps, both in understanding and planning.

None of the other groups are holding workshops or coordination meetings. R. and I have decided that the insanity that is this course has infected our brains, especially the self-preservation area. Seriously, how else to explain participating in a four week, six credit (one years' worth of credit in FOUR WEEKS!!!!) in a foreign country to conduct community-based research that results in a report to the municipal government AND then to hold two workshops for over 55 people! Given all of that, we are still pretty tickled to have gone "above and beyond" and know that what we learned from the workshops will ensure we write from a more informed perspective.

We present our reports to Mayor and Council on August 13 (my birthday BTW) and the actual reports are due on August 15 so the pressure is on! Everyone is being extra kind and gentle to each other because nerves are frayed and very few of us are sleeping well. Thankfully the weather hasn't been in extremes, we had a tropical depression turned cyclone for a few days but today was largely overcast with hair-curling humidity.

Stay well and let me know what you think!

Ingat (take care in Tagolog)!