Fantastic Facilitators!

That’s my VSO friend Jo and I, who have just run back-to-back four day facilitation skills training workshops, firstly at her NGO in Kampong Chhnang (CCD) and then at my NGO in Kampong Thom (CoDeC). We have been preparing the courses for nearly 3 months, putting in many more hours than I would have done for equivalent training back in England. Our verdict is that the courses were exhausting but extremely worthwhile and great fun. We had lots of translation issues, in spite of having a translator helping on each course, but we became more skilled as the courses progressed. Our Cambodian colleagues are almost childlike in their love of games, drawing, role-plays and appreciation of new things, which made them really rewarding to work with. We introduced a range of new skills and concepts to them, including designing Powerpoint presentations (in between power cuts!) and developing SMART objectives. Jo and I shall be following up the training by providing supervision in the field, but I am confident that the participants have really learned what we taught them and will put their learning into practice.