Seven hot days in the City of Peace – Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), where 20 youth workers and leaders step by step got engaged on the topic of project planning and management. Starting from an analysis of the problems in each of the participating countries, then they went through the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the team and personally to each of the participants, planning of specific activities and risk management. By alternating simulations, brainstorming, introducing new material, and working on a practical task (filling in an application form with a project proposal), the participants had the opportunity to follow the process of real project planning and assignment of tasks among the members of the team.
By using non-formal learning methods, participants developed knowledge and new competences on the principle of learning by doing. For some, it was quite difficult, but based on the believe that “the first battle was the battle with the white sheet” and helping teams in countries to plan together project activities, we had a number of project proposals that were ready to be implemented. Surely some of the tools that we incorporated, such as SWOT analysis, Tree of Problems and Tree of Solutions, and the SMART goals, were new to the participants, but on the other hand, the different examples and sessions that we used them in helped with consolidation and knowing how to implement them.
Several interesting things happened in addition to our program: Intercultural evening sessions. Our hosts from Tanzania chose the movie Bongo Flava after which we discussed the “quick money” goal and the different temptations that stand in front young people today. The talent show evening that we also had started with a fashion show, organized by one of our Tanzanian colleagues who presented his shirt, which opened the subject of entrepreneurship. We had a visit to the largest university in Dar es Salaam, where we met with students from the Department of Arts and participants in the previous project which we worked together “Art and Culture for Unity”.
What the participants shared in the end of the training:
Some follow up effects after this training:
