Halfway Mark
Hi Pals,
Wow... I can not believe that I have been here a month already! It has gone by so fast and only a month left to go. The office staff here always say "the days are long but the weeks are short" and I definitely feel that. The days seem to last forever but then it's Sunday and my day off seems to be the shortest day of the week haha.
I have an exciting update on my work here! I finally have a solidified plan for a project that I will be working on with the social workers. With my background in sexual violence the team was super keen to have me do some training for the social workers and medical staff in a "train the trainer" type style. The goal being that I can support them in responding to disclosures and talking to kids about child sexual abuse (CSA), and they can continue on training staff and talking to kids. We ran through a bunch of different models of what I would be working on but this made the most sense. This way it is not just a one off conversation and hopefully the social workers can grow the program.
I sat down with the social workers to hear their experiences and ideas for the training. It helped me to shape what to focus on in the training. I have spent the last few days researching and essentially doing a lit review on CSA in Tanzania. It is a heavy topic and I have been feeling it weigh on me but I know how important it is for me to understand the issue that exists here in order to provide training that will actually be of use. My plan at this point is to have have 2-3 training sessions (ideally 3 but we will see with the time I have left). The first one I am planning on focusing on providing support when disclosures happen, the second will focus on talking to kids about CSA and the third I hope to be a session to cover anything that was missed and to go over what we've discussed and talk about how the social workers can continue these conversations.
I am so excited to be using my experience and skills to support the amazing work that is happening at Rift Valley Children's Village. I love working with the social work team here, they are amazing and doing incredible work. I am learning and growing from them which is invaluable to my social work practice.
I am also still spending my Saturday mornings doing activities with the kids which brings me so much joy! Last Saturday we made "nature bracelets" out of flowers and leaves we found on our walk. The kids loved it! This Saturday we got ready for Halloween and made toilet paper rolls jack-o-lanterns and black cats! One of the boys asked me if I was going to be there on Saturday and when I said yes he replied "good you always have such fun things for us to do!" and that just warmed my heart.
On Sunday Susan and I went to Gibb's Farm and wow... it was amazing. It felt like you were walking through a secret garden the whole time. You can do many different things such as nature hikes, tours of the farm, horse back riding, milking cows, and so much more! We just enjoyed the view, sat by the pool, and had a delicious farm to table meal. I can not wait to go back!
Thanks for reading :)
-H
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