360Life training in Nepal

As well as visiting various of the projects that are overseen by CRED Partner PSD-Nepal, and journeying through some stunning scenery and along some tortuous pot-holed roads along the way, the other reason for my visit to Nepal was to deliver 360Life training to teachers in one of the municipalities here.

The training was in Kathekhola rural municipality, just outside Baglung, and must rank as one of the most beautiful settings that I have delivered training in. 35 teachers were in attendance, and between them they represented at least 20 schools. It was due to be more, however, a combination of landslides, the gen Z protests, and some additional public holidays together resulted in a mix that meant that some teachers were unable to return from visiting their traditional home villages in time for the training. The dedication of the teachers who did participate was impressive to say the least, with some travelling up to 3 hours on dirt tracks to get to it, and along routes that included altitude gains of 1500m or more.

But no matter, the training went ahead, and it was very well received. The focus of the training was particularly on the role of the teachers in providing a trauma-informed approach within their schools, and within the Nepalese context. And within that brief we looked at how the brain works generally, how to use that knowledge to encourage a good learning environment, the impact of trauma on the brain, what is ‘trauma’ in the Nepalese context, childhood trauma, personal preferences and their role in our natural behaviours and choices, and how to be a good listener when taking on a more pastoral role with the students. One difference for this training compared to many others that I have delivered was that this time my audience was a mixture of Hindu and Buddhist. Thus I was delivering to an audience that had a very different religious outlook to me, and that led to some adjusting of my responses, especially those parts that normally include Biblical references.

The break-out sessions and small group discussions allowed for further contextualisation and application conversations, and the questions that resulted gave insight into some of the challenges that Nepalese teachers are facing. These ranged from young people struggling with mental health, to lack of motivation by parents for the young people to attend school, to parental absence as they seek overseas work resulting in abandonment and neglect issues. Plus, the trauma of the range of natural disasters that has beset Nepal recently, and a sense of ‘doom’ amongst the young adults as they look to a bleak future.

Some of these questions were way out of the remit of the training, and I didn’t pretend to have all of the answers by any means, but there were some good times of discussion and processing that took place. It also demonstrated the huge range of challenges that Nepalese teachers are facing (as are teachers across the world), especially in rural and remote areas. This remoteness was one key reason for the lack of opportunities here for teachers to have facilitated conversations, with external input and perspectives, as part of their means of processing and trying to overcome the challenges. To be entrusted to provide that space for the teachers during the training was both an honour, and a big responsibility, but based on the feedback, the participants and the organisers seemed to think that I fulfilled my role.

Overall it was a very good two days of training, and my prayer is that, as the teachers return to the classroom this week, and take part in staff meetings, the learning will spread wider and impact more children and staff in a positive way. We are exploring options for conducting more training – both online for those who attended, and also train-the-trainer so that there is a small team of well-equipped ‘ambassadors’ who can take the training out into the further parts of Nepal, and instil a trauma-informed approach into more schools, communities and lives. 

the view through the doorway at the training