What have I learnt....Part 2

The learning continues....

Week 7: Sexuality
I felt I did not learn a lot this week that relates to my work with children at risk, but things I already knew where re-inforced. How the majority of children at risk are from families that lived during period of sexual freedoms, so sex outside marriage, prostitution - which leads to the majority of these children not knowing their father (700 thousand a year in Brazil are born with no fathers name on the birth certificate). We need to share the truth about the effects this has on children.

Week 8: Child development, adoption, behaviours of children
I knew a lot about child develop and how on average their grow should be like in all 5 areas: spiritual, physical, emotional, cognitive and social. The teaching that caught my attention was on adoption - and it is so many people's second choice, as they cannot have their own children, but yet the child wants the first option and doesn't even get a choice in the whole process. We also looked at how it was God's first choice to adopt us into his family (Ephesians 1:4-5)

Week 9: Disabled children, Integrity
Here at the YWAM base we have a ministry to cater for the deaf community, so we learnt about working with deaf people. 10% of people in the world are considered disabled, it is a small percentage but a large amount of people with additional needs, which are hardly ever met. We also started lessons on 10 tests of integrity.....making sure what we do matches with what we believe.

Week 10: Money (donors) and Manipulation
We spent a lot of time looking at manipulation and the various forms, and just how easy it is to manipulate or be manipulated. The key thing I learnt was to be aware of my weaknesses and know them, as this is what the children/young people will use against you to get what they want. It is about being accountable to other people, and not being ashamed, we all have weak spots in our lives...and by knowing them we can develop them to become good things.

Week 11: Leadership & Healthy Teams
A lot of this teaching was not new to me, but confirmed and development my knowledge. But two things stood out to me: How do we respond in crisis - what does this show to other people? and that what we are passionate about, what makes us mad when we see a problem - that is what we are called to work with. It is important when involved in a team and/or leading to have passion, have a heart for your work, to really drive you to do your best.

Week 12: HIV/AIDS & lose and grieving
This was such a tough week to end on. It was very useful to receive the truths about HIV/AIDS; how it is transmitted, how the virus works, how it can be prevented. But the thing that stood out to me was the problem is not actually the virus it self, it is the rejection that so many children (and adults) experience, and the judgement....a child has done nothing wrong and been born with a death sentence and a life of medication. We also looked at how we can work with children and help them express their grief, as the majority have no parents due to the virus. Tough but such an interesting week.

If you want to know about anything I have learnt and what more information, please let me know....would love to share more! Now to the next phase the practical year....