Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Climate setting

Climate setting is the creation of a conducive environment favourable for learning to take place.

From the start of the course, you and the facilitation team should aim to get participants to interact

and participate as a group, rather than as isolated individuals. This section outlines some ideas for

getting participants, no matter what their background, to acknowledge one another as team members

rather than as strangers.

Welcome, introductions and ground rules

Be prepared! Before the participants arrive, make

sure that you have planned the appropriate seating

arrangements for the group, depending on the

number of participants. An optimal seating

arrangement would be semi-circular, so that

participants can see more of each other than if

they were seated in rows.

Also make sure that you have all the materials

you need and have seen to the planning around

participants’ needs such as refreshments, meals

and accomodation requirements.

At the start of the training session when everyone is seated, welcome everybody and introduce

yourself by name. Introduce your co-facilitators and any other staff, such as monitors, who may

be working with you. Also tell participants what each member of the training team’s role is in the

training process.

Give participants a brief summary of the purpose of the training course and its duration.

Outline how the training is structured – sessions times and when there will be breaks for tea and meals.

It is useful to agree on some ground rulesfor the duration of the training, especially if the course is

a long one. These are basic guidelines for behaviour that everyone collectively agrees to uphold while

the training is taking place. You may get participants to help with a list which you can write up on the

flipchart. For example, everyone could agree to:

 Respect and accept one another.

 Tolerate differences in one another (ethnicity or gender).

 Show compassion towards and help one another.

 Endorse a spirit of sharing and participation.

 Be non-judgemental towards others.

 Abide by the course framework, such as timeframes, and not undermine the process by going to

tea early, for example.

 Have cell phones switched off while the course is in progress.

Once you have a complete list, put it up on the wall for the duration of the whole course.

(^72) Unit 2, Facilitator’s Guidelines Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children