On 3 July, more than 80 trainers and managers from family planning associations of 12 different provinces and cities gathered at a meeting in Jilin City of Northeast China to share experiences and celebrate their achievements in the first year of the Connections programme that trained parents on how to communicate with adolescents about sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues.
A total of 2,285 parents improved their knowledge, attitudes and skills in terms of how to communicate with their children on issues related to SRH, through 64 parents training workshops organized by the participating family planning associations in 12 provinces and cities. Meanwhile, 18 Training of Trainers workshops were organized, which produced 212 more local trainers.
Almost on the same day last year, with funding support from Ford Foundation, UNESCO Beijing in partnership with China Family Planning Association (CFPA) kick-started the Connections programme by organizing the first national Training of Trainers workshop, following which the training proramme was piloted and rolled out in 12 provinces and cities.
The achievements of the programme in merely a year’s time are indeed encouraging. According to the pre and post-training surveys, the participating parents nearly doubled their accuracy rate in SRH knowledge after the training, and the number of parents who take initiatives to talk about sex more than doubled and those who have confidence in talking about sex tripled after the training.
Data source: China Family Planning Association
“I have tried all kinds of methods to communicate with my child but to no avail. During the training I learned the importance of showing respect and how to use reflective listening and ‘I message’ to communicate, especially on sensitive issues. Now I have a much better relationship with my child.” – a parent who received the training
The parents’ response to the training was exceptionally good. Many shared that the role playing and problem solving activities during the training helped them practice and master useful skills in communicating with children on sensitive issues about puberty, as a result of which, they have now become close friends with their children. The reflective listening and ‘I message’ methods introduced at the training were especially appreciated by the parents.
A typical parent training workshop consisted of 5 to 6 sessions, as follows, with the last session being an optional joint session between parents and adolescents. Communication skills are integrated into each thematic session.
The composition of these sessions were proposed by Helen Cahill, original author and master trainer of the Connections course, who were engaged by UNESCO to facilitate the national TOT workshop in Beijing last year. Over the past year during the local implementation of the programme, China Family Planning Association engaged national experts to further adapt the course materials based on real experiences and feedback from the pilot areas, aiming to finalize the course materials by end of 2015 for wider circulation and usage.
“At first we were worried that not many parents will be interested, but many turned up at our first training. Then we were worried that they would not stay, but to our surprise again almost all of them completed 6 sessions of the workshop. And as they spread the good words, more and more parents are coming to us asking for training. But we do not have enough trainers. So we now need to find and train more trainers.” - Chen Yuefang, Deputy Director of Ningbo Family Planning Association
At the annual meeting, participants shared how they mobilized parents to participate in the training. Most provinces/cities made well use of their local press media and website to publicize the project and worked through schools to recruitments parents, and some worked through the neighborhood committee. The principle of voluntary sign-up was adhered to in confirming the participants. Some provinces/cities involved parents from rural, semi-urban and urban areas. A variety of methods were adopted to motivate the parents and sustain their participation, including using social media platforms such as Wechat groups to facilitate sharing among parents.
Most provinces/cities established good relationship with schools and communities during the project implementation. Some brought in professional organizations to help implement the project, and involved proactive parents as volunteers to support the organization of trainings. A common challenge faced by the provinces/cities is the shortage of quality trainers, especially in areas that have received overwhelming response from parents. Many think that school teachers can be further engaged to be trainers for the programme.
Hongyan Li, representing UNESCO Beijing, thanked CFPA for their strong support to enable the successful localization of the Connections programme, and provided comments and recommendations for further implementation of the project. She highlighted the importance of integrating gender equality and rights perspectives in all training sessions, and strengthening evidence base by consistent and rigorous data collection. She also suggested to explore the possibility of conducting cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analysis of the programme, as well as to expand partnerships including with the education sector, other service providers and relevant government departments. She very much appreciated the fact that CFPA made additional funding investment and enabled the training to roll out to more provinces than what UNESCO had originally expected to happen with the funds provided by Ford Foundation.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Ms Hong Ping, deputy Secretary General of CFPA, reiterated the importance of maintaining a community-based approach and branding strategy as well as using evaluation research to support scaling up of the Connections programme. She recognized Connections programme as a natural development and valuable addition to the adolescent programme that CFPA has been doing for the last decade. She also said that the programme is very much in line with the family development agenda that the government is now emphasizing. She shared that China Family Planning Association is ready to allocate another 1.2 million RMB to support the 2nd year of project implementation and encouraged each province/city to mobilize matching funding to strengthen and expand the programme locally.
Contact: Li Hongyan (h.li@unesco.org), UNESCO office in Beijing
