A four-day training workshop on nonviolent communication organised by Grooming dot org, a Ghanaian NGO based in Tamale with collaborative and financial support from Arche Noah Stiftung, a German based foundation, has ended in Tamale.
The workshop, which is the first of its kind in Ghana, commenced Wednesday, 7th February 2018, with participants drawn from Ghana, Germany, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Sudan and Kenya. With trainers from Germany and Kenya, participants were taken through the four principal pillars of nonviolent communication which focuses on observations, feelings, needs and requests.
These four steps allow NVC trainees to inculcate the culture of observation during conversations, appreciate feelings of people and be on the lookout for their needs, and what they may request. Participants also received training on empathy listening, anger management, conflict transformation and social change transformation techniques among others.
With a desired goal to stimulate a shift from violent forms of communication to nonviolent communication, participants are expected to practice and spread the culture of nonviolent communication at the family, community, workplace and all social gatherings.
The four-day workshop ended Saturday, February 10 2018, with a press session to launch the NVC Ghana Network. The core mandate of the Ghana network focuses on establishing sustainable avenues for connection and spread of a nonviolent communication culture across the communities in Ghana and Africa.
At the launch, the Director of Grooming dot org, Mr. Ibrahim Abukari Zugukpeni, stated that his experiences and contacts with the NVC idea motivated him to bring the language of nonviolence to Ghana. This, he added, is to create opportunities for others to experience, benefit and communicate nonviolently to promote peace. He expressed shock that during his search for information, only very few Ghanaians had knowledge of the NVC idea.
He therefore urged the Ghanaian public to be on the lookout for the next NVC workshop, to enrich themselves with the requisite NVC skills for transformed communications to promote peace. This, in his opinion, will help individuals look for alternative and creative strategies of addressing conflict among themselves.
Speaking on the sidelines of the workshop, Ms. Dominique Pannke, a German trainer at the workshop, expressed high optimism that the people of Ghana will make nonviolent communication a part of their daily lives by living and exploring other creative ways of communications to solve conflicts.
Accusations and counter accusations of conflicting parties only lead to more conflict which on a higher percentage leads to either physical or psychological violence, resulting in injury of same, she said, and challenged participants of the workshop to see themselves as agents of the new language of life, using the skills acquired to consolidate peace in their various communities on the African continent.
Sharing their experiences and expectations after the programme, participants and trainers from Africa were positive that nonviolent communication has changed their perspectives in conflict transformation, anger and social change management. Some of them expressed their regrets for the harm their previous communication had done to others, and promised to live and practice nonviolent communication throughout the rest their lives
Story by: Abukari Jamaldeen, Zaa News
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