It was July 3, 2007. The training of trainers (ToT) for the group leaders and some speakers from Sri Murugan Centre (SMC) was conducted at about 8pm at the venue of SMC Ashram at PJ. Nearly 30 took part in the training. Northern Zone Coordinating Officer Mr James Raj was with me. The session went on beyond 11pm.
It was quite a long day for the two of us. It would have been so for some of the group leaders present as well. The stark difference between this set of group leaders and the other group leaders is that most of these group leaders are single graduates or undergraduates. It was interesting and refreshing to see their youthful openness about the Project Plus 8.
The ToT started with a simple but a satisfying vegetarian Indian dinner. The session proper started with welcoming speech from the ToT coordinator Mr Ganesh and a brief introduction of the ToT participants.
They were given an orientation on the target group of underachievers, their psycho-social dynamics, their anxieties, and aspirations and so on. Then they were also briefed on the ethics and values one need to adhere by in order to meaningfully engage with this group of educational underachievers.
This was followed by Project Plus 8 overview. In this essential ingredients and components such as, why the name Project Plus 8, the ethos behind the project, the eight activities within, the eight features, eight anticipated outcomes, the modus operandi of Project Plus 8, the qualitative and quantitative indicators of success and other such nitty-gritty details of the Project Plus 8 were comprehensively elaborated.
There were some time for Q&A and then the ToT moved on to its next training element of skills. James took over the session and provided the details as to what was expected at each of those skills based sessions and the way the session delivery needs to be customised and designed and so on. He showed some practical examples, which made the night all the younger.
Then I took over to talk about the value sessions, their aim and focus. Also I covered the parenting sessions. The difference between the general parenting talks and these focused parenting sessions were clearly put forth with practical examples. Those present at the ToT burst into laughter and enjoyed the activities. Then after a quick Q&A session, the ToT came to a satisfying finale at about 11.30pm. Both of us were physically drained out but the inner satisfaction we had was worth the effort.
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