Provide Protection Through an Education Program

In partnership with two child-centered organizations, Bahay Tuluyan, and Kanlungan sa Er-Ma Ministry, Inc. (Kanlungan), ASMAE – Association Seour Emmanuel Philippines, Inc. (ASMAE Philippines) conducted the Youth Peer Advocates Training from December 18 to December 21, 2019, in the Communication Foundation for Asia in Sta. Mesa Manila. The training was participated in by 25 youth leaders ages 15 to 19, of which 12 were males and 13 were females.

The 4-day training aims to enhance the capacities of selected youth leaders in educating other children and youth in their respective communities about children’s rights and other important topics that are vital in their development. The four-day training has two important components: (1) the session on four thematic issues which include climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction and management, children’s rights, reproductive health, and gender concepts, and (2) the series of workshops on leadership skills and facilitation. Experts and experienced individuals were invited to present, discuss, and facilitate the sessions.

The training utilized interactive discussion and motivational activities that ensured the optimum experience and learnings of the participants. In the training, participants were able to deliver various outputs such as the identification of leadership values, learnings on the personal resources on facilitation, sample training modules, and the actual demonstrations of the groups’ respective learning sessions.

In the end, the participants have appreciated the activities and the facilitators that they were able to demonstrate remarkable improvements in their scores at the pre-test and the post-test. It is impressive that 100% of the participants showed improvements on their pre and post-tests where 23 out of the 24 participants registered scores more than 13 points compared to the result of the pre-test where only 4 participants generated scores higher than 13.

The training also received positive feedback from the participants as reflected in the Evaluation Survey. All of the participants agreed that the training is successful as it was able to meet their expectations. All in all, the training received a satisfaction rating of 9.3% (10 being the highest) from the youth participants.