Moldova Saying Goodbye to Moldova

Project : MOVE 25 Oct 2011 | psychosocial

Gaël Rennesson, the regional coordinator for the MOVE project is saying goodbye to Moldova, after a few days of training with the local trainers and animators, concluding the last stage of the project. He speaks of his fond memories and of his close ties to the trained animators and trainers.

What was the purpose of this training?

There were two main objectives. The first one was to enlarge the group of trainers, so we gathered 6 animators, 2 of each region (Soroca, Chisinau and Ungheni) to develop skills and competencies needed as trainers. The second objective which was a bit more important for the project, was to give to the base group – the trainers of the project – the capacities to train new trainers, so not only to be capable of training animators, but as well to train people who would train animators. So, basically, at the beginning I train animators, then I train trainers, then I train trainers who train trainers.

So this is the third and last stage of the project?

Yes, and the overall objective of this is really to sustain the methodology in Moldova and basically to hand out all the capacities of training to the people here. We know that the number of animators and trainers is decreasing over time, so we need to have these capacities built within the communities.

What were some of the difficulties you had to overcome during this training?

We did have challenges, of course. But it would have been boring without any. The main difficulty was how to give so much material in one day. Also, to analyze the position of the trainers requires a lot of points of view and in such little time it was a bit challenging and as overwhelming as well. I would even say that some of the long-time trainers had some difficulties to give feedback, because for sure they integrated the structure of how to give a feedback, but it’s always difficult to be in that position in front of many other experienced trainers, so there were the difficulties to assimilate so much information in small time then to reproduce them the next day. This was quite challenging for them. It wasn’t only easy and smooth, but I would say that it went well after all, but with quite some enriching changes, each of the trainers bringing their own personality in the process.

What do you think will be your follow-up with these trainers? As they will already be the ones that train other trainers, what will be your involvement in this process?

It’s very simple in fact. The MOVE project I’m coordinating is ending at the end of this year, at least the first phase of it. The idea for me was to focus on giving the capacities to some people working around Terre des hommes in order to give the resources to the delegation so to hand over these capacities of reproducing this training of trainers. So, through CPSN project there are already some links made, it means that some of these trainers will be used to train other trainers as well in the future. The process of integrating CPSN and MOVE is finalized already at training level. And it is about one offer of training with different range of activities. The follow-up will not be done by me, because the project is ending soon and I’m just coming back to Moldova one more time. I gave them all the cards, they can move on with this training, offering capacities further on. Then, there is the sustainability of the project, which is already partially done through the curricula that has been approved by the Direction of Education in 2 raions (Soroca, Ungheni).

Your role was to be the one that would help them help themselves.

Definitely. You start from the basics, giving everyone the capacities to answer any challenges thus understanding what are their internal and external resources, so they can face the needs and give these ideas to the children that are more able to face the difficulties they can face in life.

I’ve heard you also have lot of fun after hours…

Well… it’s been three years since I know these people. As I usually say, they are my family in Moldova. I also have a family in Albania and in Romania – they are all individuals that I know for quite some time and for me it is always a pleasure to spend time with them especially as we went through a lot together. On one hand, we are very good together and on the other hand we know exactly what it takes to work for the child’ s best interest. So, for sure, in this situation there are some working moments, even with anger and some arguments, we had some tears and laughs, but this all helps us having some fun moments, which are after working hours when we enjoy being together, joking around and telling stories. Yesterday for instance we sang a lot of Moldovan songs. Finally we are very much aware that we are composing a group, but it’s an open group for anybody who wants to join us and to enjoy being with us. I think it’s really about making the life easier for everybody within our group. (MS)