Intel Learning Easy Steps Training: My Co-facilitation Experience

Co-facilitation Experience

I just concluded a 5-Day Intel Learning Easy Steps Training delivered by Intel and hosted by Poize Magazine with support from the United States Embassy. I was nominated to represent World Pulse to co-facilitate Module 2 of the training which covers the World Pulse content. And this relationship is established in the Women and the Web Alliance (WWA) Project. The training of trainers event had 25 women in attendance and a fantastic Intel Master Trainer, Damilola Olawale delivered the training content over the 5-day training.

On Day 1 of the training: I was called upon to share about World Pulse. And I had 60 minutes to share my World Pulse story and other helpful information about World Pulse, while also working with the Intel Master trainer to support the participants to sign up on World Pulse and set up their profiles. Interestingly, I expended almost 2 hours sharing about World and supporting the women to sign up. I started off by sharing the story behind my passion for working with girls and women and stopped right at the place where I connected to World Pulse. Then, I paused to play the World Pulse video to provide a background to what I was going to share about World Pulse.

After the video screening, I shared about the World Pulse platform borrowing bits of Jensine's story from the Amazon, her inspiration for starting World Pulse and the global coverage World Pulse now presents women to share their voices and connect to catalyze social change while also accessing training and empowerment resources and enjoying a warm sisterhood and a safe social interaction platform. I moved on to share personal benefits from World Pulse as well as little ways I have shared resources that have exposed me to warm connections and platforms for collaborations. I also shared bits of famous World Pulse stories of transformation of some Nigerian Sisters they could relate too as well as some of my VOF colleagues in other parts of Africa. And then I shared a bit about Sister Neema whose voice they had heard in the World Pulse video. It was certainly an engaging sharing session because I could immediately see the transformation in the room. The women were all itching to sign up. And I supported the women to sign up to World Pulse.

On day 2 of the training: The Intel Master Trainer was very gracious and asked if I wanted to facilitate Module 2 to which I asked her to go ahead to facilitate it as she usually does. But, I supported her to help the women with navigating the website and carrying out tasks on the site such as posting their training activities to the She Will Connect Practice Lab Group. And this was when I also discovered that I had covered most of what the Master trainer was meant to take while introducing World Pulse, as I found out that she kept referring the participants to what Carolyn had already shared. But, the Master trainer facilitated great engagement on the World Pulse platform by asking the participants to post their exercises to the She Will Connect Practice Group Lab. And having the participants post their practice presentations, practice spreadsheets etc. helped the women test their knowledge of posting on World Pulse. And I found I was supporting the women to navigate the site.

I came up with an idea to coordinate a Skype call between the training participants and the WWA Team at the World Pulse Headquarters. And the moment the WWA Team gave me their support, I shared it with the Intel Master trainer who was excited to learn about the idea. It turned out the class needed to practice a Skype video call in the course of the training and it was perfect to have that experience as our practice example. And so, we had a fantastic Skype video session with the WWA Team at the World Pulse HQ and our participants at the training. It was an excellent engagement where the women got to hear and experience the World Pulse team and ask questions and share their feelings.

It was a learning experience participating throughout the training. I received the training to step down with women in my community. And I was also able to interact one-on-one with the women and share advice and further explain how they can connect and start to share their voices on the World Pulse platform. I also plan to follow them up to encourage them to share their stories and make great use of the platform. I have encouraged some of them to explore the story awards that is on-going and this was also restated during the Skype call.

Next Steps

Intel expects that I step down my training to the girls and women and I work with and I am excited to train public school girls in my community. Thanks to my VOF Resource Mapping experience that exposed me to realize that I could host a workshop in my home. I can conveniently train 10-12 women at a time in my home and I can use my television to project the manual and other information. So, I would require my participants to come with a laptop while I provide them with tea break and lunch and also cover the cost of alternative power which is often a challenge.

Appreciation

I am very thankful for the opportunity to volunteer with the WWA Team to represent World Pulse to actively move forward this pilot project. And I look forward to future volunteer opportunities to work with and for World Pulse.