CWS News

Gender Mainstreaming Program of the Women Empowerment and Family Planning Board (Badan Pemberdayan Perempuan dan Keluarga Berencana/ BPP and KB) in Poso District - has held "Children of Peace Communicators Facilitators Training." The training aimed to increase the role of students and children to be peace agents in the family, school and community in Poso District.

For this training, BPP and KB Poso District specifically requested CWS Indonesia in Poso, represented by Vini Wardhanie (Senior Program Officer for Psychosocial Support), to facilitate the training which was held from May 24 - 26, 2010 at Hotel Bambu Jaya, Poso. The training included Basic Communication Techniques, Active Listening, Basic Facilitation Techniques, and Psychosocial Introduction and Healthy Dating Relationship for teenagers. The materials received positive responses from the 45 teenage participants (14 males and 31 females) from nine Senior High Schools (General and Vocational schools in Poso), as well as from children organizations and BPP and KB staff.

Participants were actively involved in discussions, games, experience sharing and case studies. The participants also performed confidently as facilitators during the role play even with limited preparation time.
The availability of sufficient information, ability to communicate assertively, having psychosocial knowledge, access to self-actualization and self-appreciation building can provide space for teenagers to take an active role in building peace in this land of Sintuwu Maroso (Poso).

The topic "Healthy Dating Relationships" was important because dating relationships normally start during adolescence. This topic promotes Anti Violence in dating, which has not received enough attention, due to limited cases reported. Dating violence seriously impacts the psychosocial condition of individuals.
The BPP and KB also introduced materials on Children's Rights and Law on Child Protection No. 23, 2002 to provide knowledge for teenagers that they are protected by the law and also to encourage them to behave responsibly and do not just claiming their rights.

‘The training is very good and is helping us, the students, to understand our rights and how to communicate well in school, family and community environment and also to encourage us to understand the problems faced in our adolescence years. I wish in the future there will be more activities similar to this, it will boost our confidence as we are trained to speak in the public, and also enrich our knowledge because we do not receive such materials in school," said Moh. Iqbal (SMAN 3 student, Poso).