By Bakah Derick
The Information Management and Support Services for Rural Development (IMSSRAD) has ended a one day interdisciplinary workshop on team building and social competences. The workshop which seeks to to integrate internally displaced persons in host communities held in the organisation's secretariat in Bamenda from on January 7, 2021, bringing together trainers from the Bamenda III Council area being The resilient project implementation community.
According to Toh Sylvester, the Executive Director of IMSSRAD, the interdisciplinary workshop had as objectives to "Encourage communication and teamwork, Improve morale and engagement, Foster innovation and creativity, Build trust and team bonds, Acquaint and establish connections, Foster stronger relationship and cohesiveness in teams, Ignite the spirit of achievement and address interpersonal problems within the neighbourhood"
The workshop covered topics such as Joining forces, what makes a team, the communication jungle, understanding different communication styles, and listening skills.
IMSSRAD authorities say "the workshop targeted participants in providing positive experiences of living together with others from different backgrounds. They build relationships and also reduce prejudices. The workshop they added is grounded in the real life of participants in their neighbourhoods which are in increasing need of team work broken by the ongoing armed conflict.
"The emergence of the team building idea can be traced to the armed conflict. Obviously, a primary motivation for embarking upon a course of team building is the experiences of the armed-conflict, and one of its central themes has been that of finding ways to establish and maintain social cohesion and peaceful relations between inhabitants." Toh Sylvester explained
Supported by the European Union, the workshop resource person Irene Jokwi is hopeful but not without possibilities of challenges in a restive area.
"In a conflict situation, team building is not without its problems. An all-pervasive suspicion expresses itself in a refusal to engage in team building opportunities. If the approach entails consciously working with the impact of the conflict, the participants’ fear of involving can be made a topic of discussion and worked through. It is more difficult for neighborhoods that require social cohesion but which are not willing to respond to the specific socio-economic conditions in crisis areas as is the case with many micro-team building activities." She said
The Resilient Project hopes to help internally displaced persons as a result of the ongoing armed conflict in the North West Region find home wherever they are starting with Bamenda III.