Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Types of Life Skills

In this activity, you will:

 Explore different types of life skills with participants

Facilitator’s notes:

To start this activity, review the points from the previous activity on the importance of life skills.

In this activity, you will discuss the life skills we all need to conduct our lives in a positive, effective

and healthy way. These life skills are categorised below.

Activity 2

Skills necessary to have a good relationship with yourself:

 The ability to cope with emotions. Emotions, such as anger and fear, are usually reactions

to a situation and may cause regret if they are acted upon impulsively. It is a useful and

constructive skill to be able to contain these emotions and to think before taking action.

This will help young people to act with thought and purpose in their lives, instead of simply

reacting to events or circumstances that they may find themselves facing.

 Self-esteem. Often vulnerable children lose self-esteem because of their situation.

They may be intimidated easily or develop inferiority complexes. These children need

their self-esteem boosted in order to know that they are important and highly valued.

 Assertiveness. Assertiveness involves knowing what you want and why you want it, and being

able to take necessary action. Vulnerable children especially need this skill to learn how to

express their feelings in a positive way. Assertiveness also entails children being able to say

what they don’t want or don’t like, and can help to reduce the sexual exploitation of children.

 Self awareness. All children need to be aware of their individual

abilities and talents; and to develop them, knowing that each

individual is unique, created in God’s image.

 The ability to cope with stress. Many children live in very stressful

situations. Constant stress can be destructive to the growth

and development of children, and cause debilitating depression.

Therefore, children need to know the causes and signs of stress;

and how to get help and support to deal with stress to ensure

proper development and growth.

(^262) Unit 2, Module 4 Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children