Today, January 23rd,2022. RRGO staff and Volunteers get Community Resiliency Model skills refresher training. The 17 participants get three basic CRM skills. Samuel Habimana, RRGO director, facilitated others to be familiar with CRM skills training in the Rwandan context.
The trainees learned about fundamental concepts of CRM skills, explained sympathetically versus
parasympathetic responses(function of the nervous system ), Explained the Resilient Zone and High/Low Zone, and introduced three wellness skills of CRM(Tracking, resource, and grounding skills ).
After presenting the model, the participants shared more information on using the model, asked about problems, and shared success stories of using CRM in their context.
One of the trainees said,” we have been using the model in a different setting to support the Rwandan community to heal mental health stress and widen their resilience zone. Still, this refresher is a great opportunity to learn the model again and share how we use each other in a different population (target group). It is also an opportunity to ask questions, talk about challenges, learn how others use the model, and respond to some questions they come across while supporting the community.
Alphonse said: I am a headteacher. I used CRM in helping the teachers teen students. It is an environment that is sensitive based on the history of Rwanda, but CRM helps me calm students who are more depressed and have anxious-related problems and bring them into a resilience zone. The good news for CRM is that either teacher or student can use models and help them without the education gap.
Uwase said, “When you see nowadays, more people who are suiciding in Rwanda are our young generation. They are not children nor old ( 20-the 40s). We need to keep supporting our community by helping them see other resources(the positive thing they have) and practice grounding for backing into their resilience zone. She added ‘some times I use tracking or resourcing and do not work, but when I go ahead of grounding, I become calm, relaxed, and even open other skills that were not worked before. So, It is vital and possible to use this model to help ourselves and cut the rate of anxiety and depression associated with the Rwandan community.
Last, RRGO does regular refresher training for helping staff and volunteers to have some language to help the Rwandan community by using CRM skills training.
