Sunday 1 April 2018

Back to Scotland

It feels like such a short visit for me at least, Lesley is still in Zambia with more meetings for the M and E and planning but I am back to the sleet and snow of a Scottish Easter.
Evaluation exercise
The last week was again full. The training at UTH was completed with interesting points coming out of the evaluation and comments on the training. All those who completed the course passed
and the certificates have been
presented. I certainly learn so much each time I am involved in the training.
congratulations!
Monica in delivering this training is now recognised as a Trainer in Therapeutic Art alongside Wala who completed in November last year. There are definite plans now to fit in the delayed training in Ndola where Susan can complete her training. This is to be in  our June/July visit. We have been in discussion with UNZA nurse training and Chainama College and the plan is to be able to programme training for some of theses students. We have to recognise our limits as a small group of trainers with a very limited budget and plan to make best use of our resources. We have got funding to include a new UK trainer in our next trip so we are hopeful that our team will grow enabling us to get more Trainers into the system.
We are now also able to confirm that we have been awarded a Scottish Government Small Grant for 2018/19 which is wonderful and we are grateful for their belief in what we are trying to achieve. The purpose of this award is to strengthen our capacity as an organisation and also to support the coordination and sustaining of the training and practice of Therapeutic Art in Zambia so it can develop as an integral part of the Mental Health system.
lunch break
On 26th of March we were pleased to be able to arrange a meeting of some of the major stakeholders who have supported the programme and begin the discussion of how we proceed. It was good to get feedback and learn more about the developing Mental Health systems as well as the training schedules of the Institutions/Universities. The meeting was called at short notice and we were grateful that so many people were able to make time to attend; the plan is to hold a further meeting in July to build on these discussions. We need to spend time finding out a lot more from all the experts!