Capacity building was at the core of the interregional training workshop held in New Delhi, India, 23 – 27 April 2007
Young adults who work with children and who are interested in promoting ethics education through interfaith learning assembled for a week long training workshop 23 – 27 April in New Delhi, India. The 21 participants came from Sri Lanka, India, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, UK, Israel and Jordan. The workshop aimed at developing competencies in a comprehensive and practical manner, equipping the participants to use the Toolkit on Ethics Education, developed by the Interfaith Council on Ethics Education for Children. The participants were nominated by GNRC Coordinators and came from most of the regions where GNRC network is present and active. The young adults are identified as resource persons for the GNRC network and they will continue to be involved and utilized for the dissemination and use of the recently redrafted Toolkit.
The workshop provided knowledge about the content of the Toolkit through practical exercises combined with discussions on inter-faith learning, ethics education, children’s rights and spirituality and the participants had opportunities to share their experiences and knowledge.The participants learned how to use the toolkit using different methodologies conducive to interfaith learning and how to prepare a program on ethics education through interfaith learning. They learned skills on how to deliver sessions with children and they discussed together ways to nurture values in children and provide space for children’s innate spirituality.
45 students from schools in Delhi were invited for a one-day experienced-based training. The students were divided into three groups lead and facilitated by the participants of the workshop. The theme for the day with the students was Understanding Others. In the closing feedback sessions, the students expressed appreciation for the opportunity to engage with young facilitators from all over the world in important issues how to enhance respect and empathy among people of different cultures, civilizations and religions. After the experience-based training, the participants engaged in a day of self-evaluation and reflection sessions and explored how to use the toolkit in their region.The workshop included a tour of Delhi focusing on visits to the different religious communities present in the Indian context. The participants visited the biggest mosque in South Asia, the synagogue, a protestant church, the Sikh gurdwara and the Bahai Lotus temple. At all the different religious places representatives of each religious tradition introduced and shared perspectives of the specific religious tradition.
The Training Workshop was the first step in a year-long training process and capacity building. The participants will continue to get online support as they organize and arrange workshops and session with children and young people in their region. They will be supported by the GNRC Coordinators and the Interfaith Council Secretariat as they practice the skills they learned at the workshop. They will be tasked to explore in more depth an issue of their choice which is important and at the core of the Toolkit and share their findings with the other participants in this training. During the year the Council Secretariat will arrange thematic workshops either over weekends or online. In a year’s time, the group of young adults will be invited to a follow up workshop to share their experiences and acquire skills how to become a multiplier of the skills they have got during this training process. The Training Workshop in Delhi was facilitated by Ms Riham Kawar from Jordan and Ms Maria Lucia Uribe, Ms Mahal da Costa and Ms Agneta Ucko from the Geneva based Interfaith Council Secretariat. The GNRC Coordinator for the Central Asia and Caucasus region, Ms. Razia Ismail Abbasi, arranged with her local team the logistics for the workshop and assisted the facilitators’ team with an interactive session on Child Rights. She was supported by the GNRC Coordinators from the South Asia region and the Arab States region.
