Leadership for Life

I would like to lead a 5-7 day workshop in life skills for 20 high-school aged young adults in Nsuta. I have the field support of one of my host brothers from my volunteer placement, as well as a local NGO for which I have a lot of respect, Light for Children (http://www.lightforchildren.com/). The workshop would run during a school break, likely around Christmas, and participants would be recruited by my friends in the village. I would ask my friends to recruit motivated and capable people who would be interested in serving as peer counsellors/mentors. The topics I foresee covering during the workshop include the importance of education, how to decide on a field of interest, and how to take advantage of the national education system; study skills, leadership, initiative taking, and work ethic; health: maintenance (fitness, nutrition, prophylactic care, oral hygiene), health: administration (how to take advantage of their medical system and their national health insurance), and health: infectious disease (such as STIs, HIV, malaria, parasites); and finance (i.e. how to save money and use a bank account), and road safety (i.e. times of day to avoid travel, and other warning signs of potential incidents). Workshop activities would include pedagogic sessions such as lectures and a one-way conveying of information from me to the participants, interactive sessions so that the participants can develop their confidence with the material and fully understand how to apply it in their own lives, and also fun/game sessions so that participants also enjoy themselves and develop better rapport with one another. I foresee the workshop running all day over the 5-7 days, and I would like to provide at least two meals per day for the participants. I would also like to provide handbooks (printed details of the topics covered in class), toothbrushes (so that we can have an interactive session on proper brushing technique), t-shirts (that would say "I am a Leader" on the back, and the name of the workshop on the front), and certificates of completion. These "gifts" will help empower the participants and provide them with tangible reminders of the material covered and of their new role as peer counselors and leaders. The workshop would end with a detailed evaluation by the participants, so that I can get feedback on what worked and what didn't, what material was useful, how they think the program could be repeated (perhaps with younger participants), and if they have other ideas for how to make it sustainable. My current idea would be for Light for Children, a local NGO, to take ownership of the program after I respond to the evaluation, and to use their relationships with local schools to create an entire system of peer counseling groups. The peer counselors that I train could lead workshop sessions with their classmates and friends, and they could translate the material so that it could be taught to younger groups of people. I also believe that I could help establish a relationship between Light for Children and an international service initiative currently underway at my undergraduate institution, Duke University. Through this service initiative, Duke students could be placed by Light for Children in fresh communities to expand the reach of the peer counseling network. In a way, the workshop that I would like to lead could be considered a pilot initiative. If nothing else, 20 young adults in a remote town in Ghana learn a lot about life that will help them be healthier, hopefully happier, and more successful in their careers. If the workshop receives a positive evaluation, I believe that both Light for Children and Duke Engage at Duke University would be interested in helping the project to be sustainable over a long period of time.