Life Skills Education Toolkit

LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION TOOLKIT FOR ORPHANS AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN IN INDIA 7•

Objectives

At the end of the session the children will:

• Understand that relationships of love include
  parents, brothers and sisters, friends and peers
  as well as that special person – a boy or a girl, a
  husband or a wife;


• Learn that love can be expressed in many ways
  by caring and helping;


• Understand the difference between a good and a
  bad friend;


• Learn that abuse can be emotional, social and
  physical; and


• Understand that give and take is important in
  any relationship.

Key Points

Young people may think of love only in terms of
sexual relationships. They generally do not stop to
think about the element of love in all their
relationships with family, friends and community.
It is therefore important to understand and define
love in a broader sense so it can include all kinds of
love. We define love as including caring, trust and
commitment. Young people should know how to
choose their friends. They should also realize that
friendships with the opposite sex need not
necessarily be a love relation; they can be just a
friendship without any romantic love component
to it, or a casual acquaintance or a more serious
one that can lead to love. Young people should
know that love can be between people of the same
sex. Many relationships also bring hurt; hard
decisions have to be made about whether to
continue these relationships. Young people also

need to know that it is easier to blame others for

the breakdown of a relationship than taking

responsibility for making a relationship work

through a process of give and take.

Life Skills Learned

Empathy, communication, self awareness and

critical thinking.

Time Required

Activity two 15 minutes; all others 30 –45 minutes.

Materials

Activity One: chart paper, markers

Activity Two: chalk

Activity Three: blindfolds

Activity Four, Five, Six, Eight, and Nine: chart paper,

markers and cards

Activity Seven: toy telephones

Note for the facilitator

Use this opportunity to ensure that young people

understand relationships that are physical or

emotional can be between people of the same or

opposite sex. Explain that this is a question of

personal preference, and that it may be harder for

some relationships to be accepted by society —but

that does not make them wrong. Create an

environment where all individual choices are

respected, and that does not focus only on one type

of relationship.

Session Two: Network of Relationships