WBA - taking it to counsellors and clergy

For a year or so now, I’ve been supporting John Njendahayo and the Vocational Training College that he has set up, as they seek to embed the concept of ‘Whole Brain Approach to Teaching and Learning’ into the heart of all that they do.

The college opened March 2018, and WBA has been within the ethos from the start. My role has been to support the staff in this, and to provide input and resources and training, to equip them to incorporate WBA in all aspects of college life.

It’s been a wonderful journey of learning for all – me re cultural context of embedding the concept, the staff re learning about a totally new way of thinking about teaching and learning, and the students re finding out more their different learning preferences and how to maximise on that knowledge to get the most out of their studies.

We aren’t there yet, but we are all on the journey together, and I love it.

Last week, I had the opportunity to take WBA to a new audience – the I Live Again Uganda team in Gulu who have trauma counselling as their focus. They work with those who continue to suffer the after-effects of living through the horrors of the LRA atrocities and are now starting to work with Sudanese refugees as well.

It was both wonderful and exciting to see the ILA team embracing the WBA concept so well, and exploring ways in which it can be applied to their work – both regarding team dynamics for the staff, and also relating to mental health therapies for people that they work with. The upshot was that I’ve been asked to return and do longer training, with them, and also with some other interested groups.

And then today I had the delightful task of giving a presentation on WBA to a group of clergy who were predominantly from the Church of Uganda. Having the opportunity to link it to Biblical texts and faith-based thinking was a real privilege, and again the workshop participants lapped up the information with great enthusiasm.

Next week I am doing some more training at the college, and then the following week I am taking it to a CRED Partner in a school in Kenya. 

I don’t know where all this will ultimately lead, but that’s fine – God does, and I’m happy to leave it with Him. For now, I’m just delighted to be able to take this information and new way of viewing ourselves and those with whom we interact, work and live, and offer it to others, that they also may be enriched through discovering process.