ELFA International in collaboration with the Directorate of Samagra Shiksha J&K & Office of the Chief Education Officer, Bandipora today organized a one-day Training of Teachers (ToT) on Jammu & Kashmir Whole School Safety Program at Mini Secretariat Bandipora.
The event was presided over by Mohammad Ashraf Hakak, Program officer ICDS while Mohammad Amin Beigh, Chief Education Officer- Bandipora, was present as chief guest.Mohd Amin Beigh, CEO Bandipora presented the inaugural remarks and shared his personal experience of working with ELF International and the commendable job the organisation has been doing throughout J&K and particularly in the region of Bandipora.
Speaking on the occasion, Muhammad Ashraf Hakak, Program officer ICDS recountied the event as successful and felicitated the people from ELFA International and CEO's office.Resource persons/experts from ELFA International conducted sessions through a series of interactive exercises/techniques. Resource persons included Mehran Khan, CEO ELFA International; Malik Abrar, Chief of Operations; Syed Azhar, Mir Sajad, Syed Areej and other members from ELFA International.
As many as 125 teachers/HOIs drawn from various schools were trained by the experts on Whole School Safety Programme and the various components thereof including Mental Health Psycho Social Support (MHPSS), Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Gender Based Violence (GBV), Elimination of violence against Children (EVAC), Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM), Explosive Ordinance Risk Education (EORE), CCES, WASH, etc.
Mehran Khan appraised the participants and dignitaries of the essence and importance of the Whole School Safety Programme and the role of ELFA International in implementing the same. He also paid a vote of thanks to Samagra Shiksha and UNICEF for their untiring technical and logistic support.
He also presented an encompassing picture of the components like DRR, WASH, MHM, MHPSS and others which are integral to Whole School Safety, and the responsibility of both the government and individuals have to play in ensuring the implementation of all these components in letter and spirit.
He also spoke at length on the School Safety Manual developed by ELFA International, UNICEF and Samagra Shikhsha and gave a detailed context of each component covered therein.Sajad Ahmad, regional coordinator (Jammu) at ELFA International, enlightened the participants on Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Elimination of Violence against Children (EVAC), the various space-time contexts.
Syed Azhar, Regional Coordinator (Kashmir) had an exhaustive and engaging presentation on Disaster Management and Risk Reduction with special reference to schools. He discussed various steps being taken by the government and concerned agencies to meet the challenges arising out of these disasters and also emphasised the need to expand the domain of intervention.