Workshops at Compassion Children

In the past two weeks we visited Compassion Children three times to run sessions whilst the children were off timetable from normal school during the holidays. This was different from some of the other projects that we have worked on, as this focused mostly on senior school aged children where the range was 13 - 20. It was really nice to talk and chat to people who were closer to our age, and listen to all of their opinions and dreams.

Our second session at Compassion.

On our first visit to the Compassion centre we held Q and A sessions where we got to know the children, and find out what kinds of things they were interested in; so that we could host further sessions with them. This was such a lovely opportunity as it allowed us to really get to know the children there, and find out what their dreams and aspirations are. So many of them have such big plans and it's awesome that we got to play just a small part in helping that happen. 

During these Q and A sessions the children could also ask us any questions that they had about English culture and England in general. Many were very interested and inquisitive about the history of England, but also what we were doing out here in Rwanda, and our plans for the rest of our time here. It was so much find getting to interact with them on such a personal level, discussing all our favorite things like music tastes, foods, sports, hobbies.

For our second and third visits we tried to prepare sessions that they had asked us specifically to help them with; namely public speaking and debating. As a team we decided that the best way to improve public speaking and debating skills, was the first improve confidence and the ability to project your voice.

Holding the ice breaker session.

In our second session we worked with an ice breaker game whereby we got all of the children in a circle and got them to tell the entire group their: name, age, favorite animal, favorite dance move and an interesting fact. We did this so that they would feel comfortable around us as well as each other, and so that we could further get to know them. We thought that this would help them to project their voices as it was such a large group and room that you had to be rather loud to get your voice to carry.

When we came back for our third and final session we tried to build on what we had done before. As they were now more confident and better at projecting their voices, we now tried to work on their ability to form arguments and reason under pressure. We did this by holding mini debates - where we chose topics and they would have to go to either side of the room to show whether they AGREED or DISAGREED with that statement. Once they had picked a side we would then ask them to give a reason why they chose that side, and then ask the opposition to reason otherwise. 

Getting stuck into the debates - reasoning out opinions.

This was such a massive success and we had some truly amazing debates over some pretty hot topics such as...

1. The biggest problem in modern day society is crime.
2. Music is better than film.
3. Honesty is the most important human quality.

They came up with some really thoughtful and well processed arguments within minutes, and demonstrated a natural ability to reason and counter argue on the spot.

We finished up our time at Compassion by playing some classic playground games such as Bulldog. We all had a fabulous time working here, and felt really blessed to be the first team to have been asked to go. This is a really cool project and something we have really enjoyed getting stuck into!