Volunteers meet to develop AFE curriculum

Most active volunteers on the Alumni Action Programme (AAP) are nominated to be the leaders. They coordinate the AAP events in their community with the help of other volunteers. The programme mentors provide them training and support. Monthly training events are organised for them. The objective of this activity is to build the capacity of these young men so that they are equipped with skills, knowledge and experience to conduct events in order to reduce violence and discrimination against women in their communities. Eventually, they will be ready to continue the work in absence of ECF.

As a part of the ongoing training, 20 volunteer leaders were taken for a day outing to a place called Ananda Valley, an eco-tourism resort near Pune.  The following points were on agenda for the day:

• Recognise their participation: This was an opportunity to appreciate the work and efforts put in by volunteer leaders in the last 8 months.

• Receive feedback:   This was the most crucial aspect of the volunteer leader outing. Though mentors interact with men and provide feedback as and when, this was an opportunity for volunteers to share the challenges they face on field, things that they want to change on the programme, tasks in which they need further support , know their expectation from ECF, vice versa and so on.

• Develop a sense of belonging: Team building exercises were organised in which the entire ECF team and volunteers participated. We consider the volunteers to be a part of ECF and therefore there is a need for them to be able to be comfortable with mentors and rest of the programme staff.  Also, all staff members who don’t interact directly with the men on a regular basis need the space for interaction.

End of the day everyone left feeling charged up and feeling we are one team working together to reduce violence and discrimination against women. The team is now working on analyzing the feedback gathered and developing plan to implement suggestions.