Pavement Project conducts workshop for Green bag workers

19 February 2008

LBC Centre for Graduate Studies, Dehiwala: The NCEASL, implementing the Pavement Project in partnership with Lifewords, conducted a workshop for those already trained in using the Big Green Bag for counseling traumatized children.

The facilitators at the program were Paul Alexander representing Lifewords and Dharshini Gnanakan representing NCEASL.

The day opened with a time of worship led by Dharshini, and a thought shared from Scripture by Paul Alexander. Drawing attention to King Solomon’s statement in 2 Chronicles 2:5-6, “And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods”, Pastor Paul challenged those who were present with the question “What are you trying to build?” He encouraged the workers to continue their ministry of counseling keeping their eyes fixed on the great God whom they serve by drawing comparisons to building the Temple of God and to building the lives of broken children who were victims of abuse and violence

In the 1^st Session Dharshini re-captured the counseling process through a power point presentation (as seen on the left side) with interaction from the participants. The following were discussed in detail: When beginning a counseling session how to put the child at ease, how to draw the child to talk and open up, how to find out more about the child by asking him/her about incidents in his/her life, how to connect the child’s  story to the stories of other children through the picture cards in the bag, talking about how the child feels, sharing God’s Word through illustrated Bible Stories with the child, drawing the child to a place where he/she would start talking with God and finally evaluating the child’s self-worth. 

After Dharshini’s session the PP workers were paired off and given an opportunity to practice the counseling process on each other using the Green Bag (as shown in picture on right side).  

The next session was on the importance of reporting and keeping records of the children, conducted by Paul.

The session after lunch was in the form of discussion with answers to frequently asked questions. “With the recent abductions of children and the upheaval in the country, it is hard for us to approach the children,” one of the PP workers voiced.

The main aim of this project is to raise the self-worth of the child and restore hope for the future. This is mainly done through what is called the Big Green Bag., The Green Bag is divided to many sections of interactive picture cards and stories, designed for traumatized, low-literate children. A trained worker uses the Green Bag to go through a carefully planned therapeutic process with the child on an individual basis.

The workshop came to a close with Pastor David Gnanakan sharing a word of encouragement from Ezekiel 37 and a time of intercessory prayer for the Pavement Project and its workers to be used as channels of God’s love and healing to broken lives.

“It was good to attend the workshop,” a PP worker said, “I was able to recall each step of the procedure used in the project and learn new strategies to approach children.” Due to the present security situation, the attendance was not up to expectation

The Pavement Project along with the Big Green Bag was introduced in Sri Lanka in 2002 and is an initiative of Lifewords in partnership with Viva Network.