CBOW
Children Born of War
Reflections on Peer-to-Peer Training
Otim Godbie
On the first day we were introduced to what peer to peer support is and told to imagine our life as a tree with roots, a trunk, branches, leaves and fruits representing different sections of our lives and different purposes. This simplified how I look at life in general, it made me discover my weakness, strength, and know my values. I understood the way to handle and react to situations. I learnt to first calm down when situations arise, to seek ideas, and decide on which one to use before acting. I have also learnt to control my temper, and before making any judgement I learnt to listen to the two sides of a story. I also learnt that in any situation, how you react can either make something worse or better, so our reaction to a situation contributes to how it affects you. This made me to begin thinking of situations as challenges but not problems. I feel it is very nice to talk to my peers about my experiences and how I overcome issues. I like to hear their perspectives. It was such a great experience, with lessons on life that made me more mature and look at life differently in a more calm way. It was such a good training, I would love my peers to experience the same.
Ojok Ambrose
I am Ambrose Ojok. From the workshop I gained a lot of experience in peer to peer support. I learnt about strength. At first, I didn't know my own strength, but in the training I came to understand myself, what, where and how to go about things and where to react. All this was made simple by a demonstration of the tree of life.
Anger management; I also learnt a lot about how to manage some other situations, basically my life style and my reactions to sudden occurrences, be it bad or good.
I also learnt how to counsel, by giving support to other peers based on their stories, without being judgmental.
Generally, I felt so relaxed after the workshop. I learned many things that I would not have known, if I had not participated in the training.
Thomas Otim
I learnt about problem solving skills, where you describe the problem as a peer and after describing, you find out many different ways to solve a problem. As a peer, you decide which idea to try first and this helps a lot in solving problems.
During the training, I understood crisis as a major hurdle in daily life. Crisis happens and we meet it at any time. How do youbounce back after a crisis? As a peer, you don’t act first, because there are some crises that knock on your door unexpectedly. Hence, you need to take control over a crisis.
Recovery was also one of the key things I experienced during training. As a peer, recovery may be a gradual process, hence one needs to be patient to his peer becauae he or she might be psychologically and mentally upset or depressed. While supporting a fellow peer you need to allow time for recovery.
In the training, I also came to understand the tree of life. In this, we looked at some one’s life and his background. This really helped while giving peer to peer support, because it provided guidance for getting to know a fellow peer’s life story fully. For example, the root of a tree represents where we came from, the trunk is our strength, value and skills. The branches are the hope and wishes we have in life, and the leaves are the characteristics of a peer. This really equiped me with the tools and experience to analyse one another while giving peer to peer support.
