Program: Empowering Youth on Leadership, Social Animation, and Media Skills for Community Transformation
Module: Advance Module I: Leadership, Social Animation & Social Media Skills
Place: ORBIT, Humnabad, Bidar District
Dates: 4th, 5th & 6th October 2024
Partner Organizations: Centre For Non-Formal Education Vijayapura & Diocese of Gulbarga
Resource Person(s): Fr. Francis Balaraj SJ (Mob: 9449128633), Fr. Arul Anthony SJ (Mob: 9731563346) & Mr. Manjunath M (Mob: 9986853218)
‘Leadership, Social Animation and Social Media Skills’, Advance Module I capacity training instilled leadership, communication skills and the different perspectives about the society among the 18 enthusiastic selected youth (Male 6 & Female 12) from Gulbarga and Vijayapura. The advanced module training is focused on preparing the youth to become trainers. The youth are trained to lead their community. In the training, they were exposed to the different social realities of their own community through village mapping and analysis. They realised, why they live like this? Who are responsible for their social status in society? How do they understand the power dynamics? Many other questions made the youth to go deeper into the truth about the social realities. The youth discussed about the various qualities of a leader through group discussions and presented them in common.
Fr Arul Anthony, resource person, spoke on Socia Media. He explained to them the advantages and disadvantages of it. The youth expressed; the learning has helped them to orient themselves on the use of social media. This knowledge building, encouraged them to share it with others in the community.
Anita, a youth participant said, the training has helped me. I learnt to be a good Leader in my community. Darshan Pawar, another vibrant participant said, I understood what is society and the different perspectives about society based on caste, religion, gender, etc. Now, my self-confidence has increased and I can speak about the caste discrimination in my community. The youth come from marginalised communities and the training opened their eyes to the different social realities. Akash boldly said, there is caste discrimination in my village i.e., in the barber shop, grocery shop in other places. Child Marriage is also very much prevalent in my community. People need to be educated, otherwise they fall victim to all these social evils. Sudhakar T Chavan says, ‘I want to address the water problem in my community’.
Peter, a committed youth leader takes a lot of initiatives in the training. He comes from Aurad taluk, Bidar district which is a remote and backward area situated in the border of Karnataka. His father is a coolie. Peter is determined to grow in leadership skills because he wants to make a difference in his community by becoming a strong leader. Though he could not complete II PUC but for his commitment he has become the president of Youth Christian Movement Association (YCMA) in Gulbarga Catholic Diocese. Bidar District. He is a model for others.
Lakshmi M is studying III BA in Bidar district. She has two younger brothers, namely, Sagar and Ramappa. Both are studying. Lakshmi says, I come from a poor family. My father is a coolie. But I will make use of this great opportunity to become a potential leader and help people in society.
Mr. Manjunath M
Facilitator, Karnataka State
Indian Social Institute – Bengaluru
Social Inclusion and Democracy Unit