Developing social skills and preventing violence among young people
Partner
Localisation
Uganda
Main topic
Psychosocial support
Total amount of the project
37 548 CHF
Duration
1 year
Number of beneficiaries
991 people
Since September 2022, Omoana has been implementing a participatory process with these partners to improve their practice in psychosocial support and violence prevention with young people. This process aims to reflect on lessons learned from past and current activities in order to propose improvements. It has taken place thanks to funding from the “Sharing Knowledge” fund of the Fédération Genevoise de Coopération (FGC).
Our partners in Uganda run activities to develop young people’s social skills. Improving self-confidence, communicating with friends, family and community, managing emotions – these are all aspects of life that can be worked on to build resilience in the face of adversity. On several levels, our partners also address different types of violence that affect certain groups of vulnerable children and young people, whether physical, verbal, emotional or economic. Preventing discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS, combating gender-based violence and raising awareness of the mental health condition of people formerly affiliated to armed groups are just some of the specific issues that have been tackled for many years. Our partners are certainly not all active with the same population groups. However, the mechanisms of oppression are often the same. There is considerable potential for exchanging best practice when it comes to preventing and responding to violence of all kinds.
Creating interactive sessions for young people
Between September 2022 and January 2023, Omoana and its partners worked on technical sheets to conduct group sessions with young people on the following themes: Self-awareness- Self-confidence- Emotions- Stress management- Anger management- Conflict management- Mechanisms of discrimination- Trust- Collaboration- Healthy and toxic friendship- Social networks- Inclusion of people living with HIV/AIDS- Gender-based violence- Inclusion of people living with disabilities- Inclusion of people formerly affiliated with armed groups. Social workers and former beneficiaries, now active as mentors to other young people, built new sessions with Omoana’s support. In February 2023, they presented them to the other partners at a workshop. Through discussions, games and exercises, these interactive sessions were designed to help young people question their relationships with themselves and others, so that they can develop their own resources in the face of adversity and see difference as a source of wealth.
Testing solutions through Forum Theatre
During these workshops, participants also received introductory training in Forum Theatre. Forum Theatre is an interactive technique that forms part of the Theatre of the Oppressed, developed by Augusto Boal in Brazil. It enables the creation and presentation of short scenes linked to social issues, which expose a situation that needs to be changed. After an initial performance, spectators are invited to replace an actor on stage and try to change the situation, while the performance is replayed. Other actors respond by adapting their character, maintaining or adjusting their power of oppression or exploitation to what has been changed. Forum Theatre offers a means of testing solutions through action. The audience makes and evaluates all the choices. During the workshop, participants particularly appreciated this tool, which they will be using in parallel in their activities with young people to address the social issues mentioned above.
This process finally led to the creation of the “Youth together” manual, which will provide partners with a framework for conducting sessions with young people. It will also make this new method deployable in other contexts and projects.
To receive the manual, please fill in the form below:
With the support of :
- Fédération Genevoise de Coopération
