Join The Learning Circles! A call for facilitators and trainers 

–A call for facilitators and trainers–

In 2020, the WHRDMENA Coalition conducted an evaluation entitled “The Strategic Assessment,” which provided the Coalition with information about what its members may need from skills and tools in their political and human rights organizing. As a result, the WHRDMENA Coalition understood the themes that other members wished to benefit from to enable their movements.

However, our current world, which suffers from the Covid-19 pandemic, represents an obstacle to organizing educational residencies/schools. At the moment, we cannot rely on travel and meetings that depend on face to face attendance. Moreover, we are fully aware of the difficulty of creating long-term non-academic online learning courses after one year of the pandemic and the increasing presence of the phenomenon known as  “virtual meeting fatigue.” Finally, we understand the psychological and physical effects caused by all covid-19 procedures, such as confinement, isolation, and the loss of relatives and loved ones, or as a result of the post-infection with coronavirus. Therefore, the WHRDMENA Coalition is trying to open new learning spaces capable of providing WHRDs with information, knowledge, and tools that will open new horizons for them and support their capacities by sharing technical skills that enhance the quality of their lives.

Therefore, the WHRDMENA Coalition is initiating ​​learning circles based on the principles of free education (non-authoritarian, participatory, and accessible) to provide new skills for WHRDs in more than one field.  These learning circles can provide skills on using a digital application that would help reduce the burden of administrative work. Or they can be about introducing an application that helps in the transparent co-management of activities or designing posters for advocacy activities. It can also aim to introduce topics that increase the skills of WHRDs, such as well-being. They can seek to share the know-how of documentation, writing reports, or creating digital content. These circles can also be on organizing, learning conflict resolution, nonviolent communication skills, standards for creating a healthy and supportive work environment, performing psychological first aid, or managing local, international, or United Nations agencies’ advocacy campaigns.

To establish learning circles in the WHRDMENA Coalition, we ask that interested facilitators and trainers submit a proposal and where the members will vote on the proposals that interest them. The Coalition aims to hold 15-25 learning circles between August, September, and October.  The learning circle should not exceed 10 hours and can’t be less than three hours and may be divided into two to 10 days. 

The Coalition may open some learning circles to WHRDs from outside the Coalition, through the registration feature or through invitations.

 The  criteria of the proposal :

1) Introduction of the trainer/facilitator and an overview of the experiences they have.  

2) The title of the learning circle.

3) 500 words about the purpose of the circle and what impact the topic will have on WHRDs or what skill they will obtain. 

4) 500 words about the training technique, timeline, number of hours, and how many days the circle will run (e.g., a learning circle on how to use Slack to manage a team, a 4-hour learning circle, a maximum of 6 participants, the first hour: explanation of the application, a glimpse, a visual about it, how to download it. The second session: live experience, explanation of channels, use of the bot, etc.).

5) criteria for participation (Do participants, for example, have to be familiar with a specific topic or not, etc., read a specific article or file, etc.?).

6) Is there a specific date/timing for the circle? For example (August, second week, after 5:00 Beirut time).

All proposals should be sent to: comms@whrdmena.org. We also hope that those interested send a complete proposal in both form and content.

 Application deadline: 31.7.2021

• Those selected by the members will be contacted by July 20, 2021 the latest. The Coalition will award facilitators and trainers a nominal remuneration.
• The training can be in Arabic or English (the Coalition provides translation).