In January 2020, the ICDP training started in connection with the Save the Children (SC) project in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
The ICDP programme is envisaged as a complementary component to the existing intervention under the current Child Sensitive Social Protection (CSSP) programme by SC, aiming to strengthen the parental competences and children’s overall psychosocial development. A first group of facilitators received training in 2017 and 2018.
In 2020, a group of twenty two professionals linked to SC and their partner organizations, attended the ICDP Facilitator level training in January. There were two objectives of the new training. One was to prepare a new team of trainee facilitators, so that they are able to carry out their first ICDP practical work, i.e. do their self-training project by implementing the ICDP programme with a group of caregivers and eventually become ICDP facilitators. The second objective was to help several of the previously trained facilitators embark on their training to become ICDP trainers. In fact, these trainee trainers acted as assistants to Nicoletta Armstrong who conducted the January workshop.
A new ICDP module specifically adapted for Burkina Faso, was prepared in advance and discussed with the core team of trainee trainers before and after the workshop. It is based on the module that ICDP had developed with SC in the Philippines.
The participants received the customary training in ICDP and on the last day they discussed together with their trainer, how best to adapt the videos, photos and booklets for use in Burkina Faso.
With regards to the 8 guidelines for good interaction, participants were divided into 4 groups and in each group participants spoke a different local language – there are over sixty languages in Burkina Faso, but the participants will be using 4 main languages once they start the ICDP work in their respective communities. Each group decided on the best translation of the key words for the 8 guidelines for good interaction and 7 principles of sensitization. This was done bearing in mind the education level of the families that will be receiving ICDP in future and the language they are likely to speak.
All participants had a chance to practice the delivery of the ICDP programme to caregivers through mock sessions at the workshop, in which some participants acted as parents and others as facilitators. After the training, they started to apply ICDP with parents by working mostly in pairs (two facilitators run one parent group). They will report about their self-training projects at the next workshop, to be held in April 2020. The trainee facilitators showed a lot of interest and real commitment to take ICDP to families in their respective communities. And the trainee trainers on the other hand, displayed good skills in applying the 7 ICDP principles of sensitization in relation to the workshop participants. The trainee trainers are currently supporting the practical work of the new facilitators.
