Training weekend in Guildford, Surrey
On the 29th and 30th May, spread between the days, more than 60 volunteers of all ages and background joined the Yebo team at Loseley house in Guildford Surrey.
Watch our video below to get an idea of how the day went:
The Chestnut lodge building was used for our weekend which was open to all.
The day consisted of talks and information by professional therapists and a child protection officer, along with staff from London zoo and Uganda. The days covered a range of topics listed below:
Listening skills
Play therapy
Communicating with children with disabilities
Child abuse in the UK and Africa
Music therapy
Ugandan slums
Cultural talks
Animal assisted therapy
Primate conservation
Post traumatic stress disorder in children and primates.
Volunteers were given detailed information on each of the subjects and took part in a number of activities over the 2 days, including using play toys to make up stories in the play therapy talk, listening skills activities, looking at communicating to each other through music, making their own flip flop from recycled materials and even had the pleasure of meeting ‘Merlin’, a lovely dog brought in by Tammy Loya, who is a member of staff in our South African team. Tammy is a physiotherapist and also manages a large team so is a very valuable member of our team out in Africa. This activity was used in the animal assisted therapy talks.
Peace Nakitto from Uganda, flew over to the UK, specifically for the training weekend to speak to volunteers about the culture in Uganda and South Africa. This is something we find is an important part of the volunteering experience in the Yebo projects as the activities and support may be used in a different way abroad. Peace also helps our project when we are in Uganda.
Veronica Etherington is a play therapist who works for CHASE hospice care for children. She also works with Heather Tilley 
who is a family and bereavement counselor and Fiona Armitage who is an occupational therapist. Fiona works with many children with disabilities and spoke a lot about the communication when working in this environment.
Staff members from Nordoff Robins kindly spoke to us about Music therapy. Alasdair Davies works at London zoo and also travels abroad to conserve primates. Alasdair spoke to the group about primate conservation.
Hayley Green works for the Surrey child protection team and spoke to the group about child abuse in the UK and Africa.
Below, Sylvian Timberly, a student at Bradford University writes about 
her experience of the day.
“SERENDIPITY
Definition
The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
——-
The experience was truly so…. I found that each presenter used
individualistic techniques to effect. However, the most memorable
topic for me was introduced by Peace concerning her homeland, Uganda.
Her presentation encouraged me to make a decision to join the group
visit in July.
All lectures were interestingly presented to ensure audience attention
and the participatory factor ensured that participants did not nod
off due to the effects of the early start and warm atmosphere.
For myself, there was particular interest in analysis of presentation
techniques as these are useful in my own developmental programme.
The talks by Lisa and Alistair on primate behavior and conservation
were enlightening regarding chimpanzee emotional reactions to events in
their lives. Particular reference was made to Jennie and the
traumatic responses to her terrible treatment in the name of science.
These talks had me hunting for relevant academic papers on the
University site, thus indicating that all the imparted knowledge
remained with me.
So, I now come full circle to serendipitous experiences after not quite
knowing what to expect beforehand but thus resulting in one of the
best experiences of a lifetime – so happy I joined.”
We were grateful for all who attended the days, and we enjoyed speaking and meeting all the volunteers over the weekend.
For more information on attending future training days, please email info@yeboyes.org
2 Comments
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Primate behaviour, music, art or play therapy, conservation, working with children, and get work experience? « — April 11, 2011 @ 4:06 pm
By Roger Mallins, June 11, 2010 @ 8:33 am
Interesting reading about the variation of the subjects discussed at the training weekend,and,in paricular the reciprocal approach to the topics in question, all which bode well for newcomers to this admirable cause.I wish all the new volunteers well in their valuable aims.