Training Report

(September 22-26 and October 12-13, 2006)

      Overview

NVM has organized twelve orientation-training workshops for Clean Pakistan Campaign volunteers in Lahore from September 22- 26 and October 12-13 2006. 503 volunteers including 301 males and 202 females from various universities and colleges of Lahore attended these trainings. The main aim of these workshops was to build the capacity of volunteers to make them understand the objectives Clean Pakistan Campaign and to provide them an opportunity to practice guidelines for effectively delivering the campaign message to the community. The workshops were designed and developed by the Consultant Training and Organizational Development NVM/UNDP under the overall guidance of Director General NVM and in consultation with the implementing partners of the Clean Pakistan campaign. During these trainings NVM successfully registered 410 volunteers from Lahore.

These trainings were successful as they helped in motivating the students for voluntary work, sensitizing them about health and hygiene and solid waste management issues in the campaign area, giving them orientation about their role as volunteer in the campaign and in building their capacity to communicate confidently and effectively with the community.

NVM engaged highly qualified faculty including various heads of NGOs/ voluntary organizations, health/hygiene and solid waste management experts from the city district government of Lahore, population welfare experts and communication specialists for these trainings. A training manual along with notebook and a pen was given to each volunteer.

All the workshops were highly interactive and hands on and were well received by the participants. According to the post training assessment done by the participants on a rating scale of 1-5 (1 being the poor and 5 excellent performance) the over all rating of 10 workshops conducted in round one in the University of Central Punjab was 4.3.  Whereas the overall rating of second round workshops held in the University of the Punjab was 4.5 on a rating scale of 1-5 (1 being the poor and 5 excellent performance). Please see Appendix A for further details about the workshop evaluation.

NVM organized an inauguration ceremony of Clean Pakistan Volunteers training in the main auditorium of the University of Central Punjab Lahore on September 22nd 2006. Nazim-e-Ala of the City District Government Lahore Mr. Mian Amir Mahmood was the chief guest of the ceremony. The ceremony was attended by more then 300 students of various colleges affiliated with the University of Central Punjab, University Deans, faculty, representatives of the City District Government Lahore, NVM management and Staff, and volunteers of collaborating organizations. In his speech the Nazim e ala, appreciated the efforts of NVM/UNDP in organizing the campaign and trainings in Lahore and assured his fullest cooperation. He also showed interest in future trainings and capacity building projects in collaboration with NVM in Lahore.

First Round of Trainings (22-26 September 2006)

In the first round a total of 10 training workshops were conducted in the University of Central Punjab New Garden Town campus Lahore from September 22-26, 2006. 320 students including 217 male and 103 female participants from the following educational institutions attended these sessions:

A number of business professions (ex-students of University of Central Punjab) also attended the evening training sessions. The volunteers showed great interest in training and showed their eagerness to play their role during campaign.

In the second round from October 12-13, 2006, a total of 183 students including 84 male and 99 female from Sociology and Social Work departments of University of the Punjab, Lahore were trained in two separate workshops. The trainings were held in the biochemistry lab auditorium, New Campus, University of the Punjab Lahore. The workshops were inaugurated by Vice Chancellor of the University who appreciated NVM/UNDP efforts to promote volunteerism in Pakistan and assured his fullest cooperation in Clean Pakistan campaign.

3.      Workshop Objectives and Contents

Workshop Objectives

The workshop was designed to enable participants to:

Workshop Contents

4.      Workshop Sessions Detail

Basic format for all the training workshops was the same as each workshop had three sessions and the total duration of each workshop was four hours. Further details about training sessions were as following:

The main aim of first session was to motivate participants for voluntary activities and highlight the importance of volunteerism in Pakistan. For this purpose selected guest speakers were invited from the NGO sector to their experience about volunteerism and motivate students to work as volunteer. These sessions were very helpful, as participants look keen interest in listening to success stories of the guest speakers and asked many questions.

The second session of each workshop was devoted for talk about the importance of clean environment, health & hygiene and waste management. The resource persons were experts from the City District Government Lahore. During the sessions the resource persons highlighted the importance of clean environment and gave a detailed picture of conditions of Union Council 103-104 (Clean Pakistan campaign area). They also shared with the participants the campaign messages, which the volunteers will deliver to the community.

The last session of each workshop was devoted for enhancing the volunteers’ skill for communication with the community. The issues discussed were: how to open a dialogue with the community, building rapport, giving clear and specific information, active listening skills, asking the questions, dealing with criticism, and documentation. The volunteers were also sensitized about their role and responsibilities during the campaign. The participants practiced their role though simulated role-plays and received feed back from the resource persons.