SERVICES
HERO BOOK
Million Memory Project Zimbabwe Trust engages children, youths and some of the caregivers it works with using tools such as the hero book and Tree of life. The Hero book creates a safe psychological and physical environment for the youths to explore and reflect on their lives. It can also be viewed as a journal where one can come out and not fear being judged or discriminated against. It assists them in focusing on how they want to shape their lives and how they can go about doing so.
The hero book assists participants to tell their life story and record it in a version they can best relate to. These versions help them cope and move on as stronger people.
The Hero book has become a new and exciting way of telling one’s life story without causing too much damage by reflecting on the past. The hero book also encourages the youths to have high self esteem and believe in themselves. For instance if one comes from a home where he/she is constantly being told they are good for nothing and can never achieve anything, the hero book reverses this by directing the individual towards his/her strengths and that becomes the remedy. The hero book can be described as a solution focused tool kit which encourages one to come up with their remedy for any given problem.
Why would I leave? Passion
Topics covered in the hero book include Me Now, My hero, Genogram and Hero in me just to mention a few. A topic such as the genogram encourages one to record his/ her family tree. As the child traces back to his/her ancestors they are able to get a sense of belonging and deeper understanding of which they are and give them a sense of belonging
The hero book is famous for bringing change into the lives of the children and adults who engage in it. Issues that need attention can be picked from the hero book and counselling sessions can be arranged for those who need them. This has been a powerful tool in picking up different psychosocial support issues that one may have.
Most importantly the hero book helps one reach self actualisation, boosts self esteem, helps one to set and achieve goals and is an excellent yardstick for measuring ones capabilities. After completing the hero book one becomes self motivated and goal oriented.
Memory Work
Memory-work is a social constructionist research method that was developed to bridge the gap between theory and experience. It provides a way of exploring the process where by an individual becomes part of a society, and the ways in which participate in the process of socialization. It is a group method, involving always the collective analysis of individual written memories. The use of memory-work as a method in social research has become well established in most countries. Increasingly, its use as a qualitative research method has come to challenge conventional mainstream research practices .the method brings with it many fascinating dilemmas and issues of both a theoretical and methodological nature. Therefore Million Memory Project Zimbabwe used tools such as the Hero book, Tree of life and the SRHR hero book to try and connect with the children, youth and caregivers the organization works with.
Who Am I?
It is a tool which is used to reflect the person to answer the question” Who am I”. The tool is used mainly to get to know the participant reflecting on who they say they are, where they came from and who they aspire to be in a distant future. The topics covered in this tool ask things like values, how to prosper, my aspirations only to mention a few. This reflects on who really the participant is and how far they have changed over the past five years and where they think there are going.
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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Experiential learning is learning from experience and through doing. It is a process through which individuals construct knowledge, skills and values from different experiences. Experiential learning can briefly be described as learning through experience. Experience is the best teacher and this method has been effectively applied when working with youths. It can also be explored through different activities and lessons.
This method has also been used in conducting activities in the community. Youth facilitators were trained on how to facilitate experiential learning activities and they have been instrumental in ensuring that experiential learning is a success.
Different topics are covered and one important topic is one that covers goals and goal setting. The topic on goals is designed to encourage participant to realise the importance of setting individual and group goals. Setting goals keeps one focused on their target and motivated to reach the set goal. Participants are usually requested to write down their daily goals and then asked how they ensure that the desired goals are accomplished. They reflect on the goals they have written down and challenge themselves. It is emphasised that for one to be motivated they need to set achievable goals. If an individual sets unrealistic goals they become discouraged especially if they do not reach those goals.
The tree of life
The tree of process is to build and acknowledge a second story about the participants life, the tree of life focuses on the second story that consist of the skills, hopes, dreams and abilities of each participants and the stories behind each of these. The origins that the participants has is all emphasized in the tree of life. This activity of drawing the tree of life counsellors have an opportunity to explore the participants “second stories”.
Each part of the tree is a metaphor used to explain or describe an important aspect of one’s life. The ground is a metaphor using words and drawings describe who the participant lives with, what they like doing on their day to day life and his or her favorited this that they like to do when at home. The branches represent the hopes, dreams, and the wishes of the participant. The leaves of the tree represent the important people ho are in the participants life which could be the participants mother, father, aunty, grandfather, friend teacher etc. the fruits represent the fruits that has been given, these do not have to be materialistic but acts of kindness or love from the others. The leaves that hav fallen represent the losses or the people that the participant lost.