Preparation work
(a) Read the background document. The trainer needs to be aware that this activity might give rise to emotions and sensitivities among participants that will need to be dealt with. Therefore, make sure you know what resources (e.g. social workers,
psychologists, etc.) there are in your community and be prepared to refer participants to them.
Explanation of the activity
(a) Explain to the participants that they will be divided into four groups. (b) Each group needs to give advice to someone about how they can
build a healthy relationship with a baby or child.
(c) Group 1 will give advice to grandparents; Group 2 will give advice to fathers; Group 3 will give advice to mothers; Group 4 will give advice to brothers and sisters.
(d) In the advice that the four groups offer, they need to focus on these three age groups: Babies, two-year olds and four-year olds. (e) Each group must decide on a spokesperson who will give
feedback to the rest of the participants. The feedback needs to be outlined on a piece of flipchart paper.
Implementation of the activity (a) Divide participants into four groups.
(b) Give the groups the following instruction: Give advice to the following people on how to build healthy relationships with babies and children.
Group 1 gives advice to grandparents. Group 2 gives advice to fathers.
Group 3 gives advice to mothers.
Group 4 gives advice to brothers and sisters.
(c) Each of the four groups needs to give advice to grandparents, or fathers, or mothers, or brothers and sisters on how they can build healthy relationships with:
• babies
• two-year olds • four-year olds
SES S ION 8 : HE AL T H Y F A MIL Y REL A T IONSHIP
grannies can read to babies and young children, brothers and sisters can play with their younger siblings, etc.
(e) Groups have 20 minutes to think of advice.
(f) They should write down their advice on a flipchart to present to everyone.
(g) After the group discussions, give each group no longer than five minutes to give their feedback.
(h) Compare the groups’ feedback to the background information on this topic. If gender stereotypes are evident in the groups, discuss these in a sensitive way.
(i) End this activity by highlighting the importance of healthy relationships in families.
PRESENTATION
Explain to the participants that you are going to do a short presentation summarising the discussions of the session. It will include important messages to remember regarding healthy family relationships.
Present the PowerPoint presentation to the participants called: Healthy family relationships.
During the presentation, make sure you link the key messages, discussions and group feedback to the PowerPoint presentation. At the end of the presentation, allow time for questions and discussions.
Key messages
• Children grow up in different types of families.
• Families provide babies and young children with the environment and experiences that will help them to understand their world. • Children need a stable family environment to provide them with a
sense of belonging.
• Parents/caregivers are important in the lives of their babies and young children and their love needs to be consistent.
• Brothers and sisters also contribute towards the love, attachments
SELF ASSESSMENT
Write the following task on a piece of flipchart paper and ask the participants to write down their responses on a piece of paper: Write down the three most important things that you will do when you get back home to build a strong healthy relationship with your baby or young child.
You might want to write down the task in the participants’ mother tongue. Explain to the participants that this is not a test and that you will not take in their answer papers.
Explain to them that they are going to do this to see for themselves how much they have learnt during the session.
CLOSURE
You are at the end of Session 8. Remind participants that this session provided them with some key information on healthy relationships and reasons why healthy relationships are important for babies and young children.
It is important that they apply what they have learnt today when they go back home. They should also share this information with their neighbours.
Ask participants the following question: If you want further guidance and advice on building strong relationships with your baby or young child, where can you find more information? Allow a few participants to share their answers and write them on a piece of flipchart paper, if you want to. Remind them that it is important to use the resources in their community to help them form strong family relations.
Tell participants the date and time for the training session for Session 9. Thank the participants for their involvement in this session and give them Handout 10: Healthy family relationships.
TRAINER HINTS
Write down notes about some of the lessons you learnt or any other interesting discoveries you made during the training of this session. You may wish to recall these the next time you train this session.
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SES S ION 8 : HE AL T H Y F A MIL Y REL A T IONSHIP