OGCEYOD Cameroon on Children’s Workshop OGCEYOD Falcons 1

The OGCEYOD falcons have now been running for almost 5 years and have quickly become an established highlight in the week of the thirty or so children who now attend. They are always enthusiastically waiting at 4pm on Wednesday and love to take part in the cooperative games and activities which are designed by OGCEYOD volunteers to educate and stimulate whilst giving them space to grow in self confidence. This youth group, composed of young people aged from around 8-12 years from different backgrounds and religious denominations enables them to learn to work together and learn about the values of peace, friendship, cooperation and unity. Through a mixture of games, art, performance, education and discussions the children learn new skills and techniques, to help them grow as individuals, and as a group.
So far these activities have included making a group charter with lots of values such as: no violence, being friendly and respectful, and loving everybody in the group! We have started to introduce more difficult ideas and concepts such as a percentage line across the room showing women’s inequality as a way of demonstrating why International Women’s Day (8th March) was important. More recently the group learnt about Children’s Rights and were able to differentiate between the needs (rights) and wants of a child. Some activities such as craft work has been challenging as we have limited resources and the group has found it hard to share things and unlock their creativity, however eventually they really get absorbed into the tasks and often we can’t get them to stop!
It is wonderful to see the group bond and benefit from our positive reinforcement; the children really love coming to the group and in the coming weeks they look forward to learning more about the world around them and even having an election!
Laura says: “I absolutely love working with this special group of children; I cannot wait to try new things with them and see how they progress. We have been thrilled to find the kids arriving on time and even bringing friends with them! They’re so energetic and willing to try anything, I LOVE them more and more each week!”
Hywel says: “The OGCEYOD Falcons has been an incredibly enjoyable and successful project so far. The children in the group are energetic, enthusiastic and extremely fun to work with!”

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