LOCATION: DEHLI
I was extremely fortunate to visit India in February this year to deliver training workshops for two different charities. Both these charities, with their emphasis on helping young people to develop the necessary skills to improve their future lives, seemed an ideal fit for Working Voices. We not only share the values of these two charities, but felt that both would benefit from our particular areas of expertise. So Working Voices arranged a trip to India to visit the two organisations.
In Delhi I visited the India office of Restless Development, an international youth led development agency. I spent four delightful days with the Country Director and her senior staff. Our aim was to have a comprehensive training programme that covered pitching, presenting, impact and presence. Initially, we covered the fundamental soft skills for a good communicator – voice, body language, eye contact, etc. As the week progressed we added further layers to these basic skills in order to maximise impact: using pitching techniques, identifying personality types and understanding the psychology of language. All participants were filmed at least twice pitching and presenting and got immediate feedback both from me and their colleagues. At the end of the week everyone put together a personalised ten point action plan for the future. It was a very rewarding and satisfying experience, taking a journey of self-development with the same group all week and (judging from the feedback) they enjoyed it as much as I did.
We are hoping that this is the beginning of a lasting relationship with Restless Development and plans are already in their early stages for delivering this week long training course in each of the eight countries where Restless Development currently operate.
“At the heart of everything Restless Development does, is voice – a voice for the next generation which will be the success or failure of countries such as India to bring their people out of poverty. We therefore need leaders in the organisation who can drag governments, aid agencies and the corporate world with us towards achieving our vision. Aparajita and her team will have taken a step towards those leadership skills from this week. Thank you.”
Nik Hartley
CEO
“This is to say a BIG THANKS to you and Nick for extending the expertise of Working Voices to the Restless Development team in India. We, from Restless Development highly appreciate your gesture, we gained a lot from the training and also from Nick who is an excellent trainer. The last week was equally worthwhile, inspiring and fun.”
Aparajita Dhar
Country Director
“In 10 years of my career, I have attended numerous communication workshops. Nowhere have I received such critical feedback based on video evidence. I loved every bit of this training.”
Ravi Ranganathan
Programme Manager
Restless Development is an international youth led development agency formed in 1985. Their programmes on health education, livelihood, employment and civic participation have reached over 7 million young people. They work full-time in India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and are now also leading efforts with UN agencies, bi-lateral agencies, civil society and governments in Africa and South Asia in how to effectively and meaningfully engage young people in development.
To find out more please visit their website: http://www.restlessdevelopment.org
Or to find out what they had to say about us take a look here: http://www.restlessdevelopment.org/news/2013/03/01/working-voices-in-india
