DAY 1 - A Path to Follow
Day 1 - 24th May 2022 is an introduction and team-building day. After the breakfast, at 10:00 o'clock the first session of the project was started. The first session was called "Get-to-know" which was divided into three games that aim the participants to learn each other's names and some personal information about themselves. Starting with the name games where the participants were telling their names and making one personal gesture, and then along the circle everyone had to repeat the names and gestures respectively, then they divided into pairs and interviewed each other. This helped them to get some personal, professional information and hobbies of each other and later they presented their pair to others with the information they got from "interview". The last game was more about energizers where the participants were asked to walk through the room as they were in the space and at the same time the facilitator is giving different instructions according to the team's openness and readiness to some interactions (e.g. when you meet each other smile to each other, hug each other, talk to each other nonverbally) This exercise helps to create a trustful atmosphere in the group and become closer on the energy level.
After half an hour break, the participants were in the next session called "Fears, Expectations, and Contribution". The participants were divided into groups and on the stick papers, they mentioned their fears, expectations, and contribution. They ultimately shared it with the entire audience and attach the results to a flipchart.
After the lunch, the participants got more information about the project, its objectives, project plan/timetable, methods that were going to be used, partner organizations and other stakeholders, participants' profiles and needs, facilitators, food/ accommodation/ safety, youthpass certificate. This session took 1 hour and half and was followed by 30 mins break.
After the break now it was time for the "Team Building" session which included three activities. In the first activity, the participants were given statements and they needed to match these statements with others. They were going around, socializing, getting to know each other, and getting challenged to win. Then they debriefed. In the second activity, the participants made 2 circles - inner and outer. The activity had several phases. People in different circles faced each other and performed a particular task - like "draw a portrait of the person in from of you", describe his/ her education", "write about his/her work experience", and "write about his' her hobbies". In the end, they created virtual profiles of each participant. The last activity in the session was about the task given to the participants. They needed to cross the imaginary river of around 10 m. And for this, they were given 10 stones (A4 papers). The strict rule was that the whole team should be on the other side of the river, if even one person was left then the task was not accomplished. Another strict rule was that if the stone was left without a foot or hand then it floated away, which made it quite risky to reach the other side of the river with fewer stones.
As it was approaching the end of the day, we needed reflection groups to evaluate the day and the sessions. These are groups of 6 people coordinated by group leaders. The aim was to let participants evaluate their recent day; express their positive and negative feedback and use it for future improvement of our sessions.
In the end, the group leaders' meeting was held where they can share the feedback of their reflection groups with each other. This was analyzed and considered for the following day's sessions. Some photos from the DAY 1 are attached below: