Hey hey everyone! Welcome back to ETP Blog, I’m glad to have you here! This week’s post is about the first of the two trainings I conducted in Harare, Zimbabwe last month as part of my duties as the IFMSA Standing Committee on Human Rights and Peace (SCORP) Regional Assistant for Africa – the Training of New Human Rights Trainers (TNHRT).
Background
The TNHRT is an IFMSA veteran training, in that it has been conducted in countries around the world for many years as it’s very popular among the IFMSA Trainings. The aim, as the name aptly describes, is to train new human rights trainers – so by the end of each TNHRT – the attendees should be capable of delivering a training to other medical students; and thus the cycle continues. Because of the intensity of the training, they tend to occur at Pre-IFMSA Regional Meetings, Pre-IFMSA General Assemblies, or even as stand alone events at IFMSA Sub-Regional Trainings, or during National General Assemblies. This way, the trainers have enough time to cover the packed syllabus and ensure the trainees are prepared to go out and become trainers.
The TNHRT was one of 5 trainings at the Pre-Africa Regional Meeting (Pre-ARM); other trainings included the Ipas Training, External Representation Training, Global Health in Exchanges Training and the Training of new Medical Education Trainers.
Chris Wallace, SCOPH Regional Assistant for Africa & Alaa SCOME Regional Assistant for Africa
Got it? Great!
So the Pre-ARM started off with an opening ceremony at the ZESA Training Centre, which was where our accommodation was, and that was such a plus because – hold your seats – Zimbabwe is cold once the sun goes down. I mean chilly, I mean your toes will freeze at night kind of cold. I heard it was cold before I got there but I was like, it’s Africa, how cold can it get? It was when I had to get Strepsils and drink medicinal tea for a few days that I got my answer haha.
ETP, Munya, Toyosi & Alaa
ETP X Alistair ( ARM Zimbabwe Organizing Committee Chairperson)
My beautiful Rwandese friend Divine, SCORA Regional Assistant for Africa 2017/18
Dr. Alaa Ibrahim, Sudan, IFMSA Regional Director for Africa 2017/18
ETP X the amazing Shahd Rasheed, my personal angel at this PreARM, couldn’t have done it without her!
ZESA Training Centre is actually really beautiful, with it’s well manicured lawns and over-active sprinklers (which one had to watch out for when walking on the grounds or risk getting a free shower lol).
For the Pre-ARM, the venue was at the expansive University of Zimbabwe, so we enjoyed short bus rides to the university from ZESA and it involved sightseeing and playing a number of games which were fun!
You thought there were real zebras on the University campus? Come on now haha
L-R: Batool Al-Wahdani (IFMSA VPE & President-elect), Rati, Alaa, ETP, Toyosi, Tendai & Dorothy
The Pre-ARM lasted four days and so each day was packed with trainings, with day one for arrivals primarily.
Day two we had an interactive session taken by my amazing co-trainer, Shahd Rasheed from Sudan, which involved a human rights museum, where the participants got to learn about the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Next I taught on medical ethics and by the end of my session the ‘ABCDEF’ of medical ethics was a song in my participants’ heads lol.
Participants doing the human rights museum activity
After lunch we had a session on sexual and reproductive health rights, which I taught as it’s my area of specialty then we had a team building and evaluation skills session where I taught on how to engage participants and then how best to know how effective your trainings were – via evaluation.
Lunch are the University of Zimbabwe was divine!
As June 18 is World Refugee Day, we took out time to create beautiful WRD posters to partake in the international campaign being held by IFMSA SCORP.
After a short tea break, Shahd taught on the right to health and we wrapped up day two!
Day Three:
Shahd kicked off day two with a presentation on peace and conflict which got the participants to think of different ways to maintain peace. Next I took the Human rights and wrongs in Health Worker Practice session which was basically a game where you put yourself in various scenarios in a health centre setting and make decisions based on human rights topics and see how you end up – as I had taught medical ethics the day before, all my participants passed the tests in this game pretty easily and I had a proud mom moment lol.
Shahd Rasheed, busy at work
Participants playing the human rights & wrongs in health workers practice
After lunch, Sayed Rasheed (who is Shahd’s little brother!) taught the communication and presentation skills session and lastly for day two, Shahd taught on prejudice and discrimination.
T-Bone & Rice with a vegetable side
Sayed Rasheed taking the communication skills session
Day Four:
This day was more about the participants putting everything they had learnt about human rights training into practice. They were paired off earlier during the training and had worked on giving a 20-minute training on a chosen human rights topic. Myself and Shahd then evaluated their presentation based on content & delivery and gave them feedback! They did excellently well, I had another proud mom moment haha.
Darlington & Beryl hard at work
Alistair and Douglas put in a lot of soul into their presentation!
Emmanuel & Glory presenting on Women’s Rights
After this I explained what needs to happen next for them to be certified TNHRT Trainers – which is that they had to fill out an evaluation form and also have a graduation training – within 6 months of completing this training. The essence is that the knowledge they gained is imparted on others and they get a chance to practice all that they learnt during the TNHRT – it’s a win-win.
L-R: (bottom) Shahd, Gloria, ETP, Emmanuel
(back) Alistair, Douglas, Darlington, Beryl, Gift
So that’s what the TNHRT PreARM was all about!
When is the next Africa Regional Meeting you may be wondering? It’s in December 2018!
Where: Kumasi, Ghana!!
Who can go: Medical students from across Africa!
Once more information is available, I’ll gladly share it – we need more Africans to get IFMSA Trainings!
Till next time,
Dr. ETP xo
