Members of The Cameroon Community Media Network upskilled on Non-violent Communication and Psychological Care
A four hours session organised by Draufsicht on Wednesday May 5th at the Presbyterian Church Center Mankon saw the training of over 20 journalist on how to use non- violent Communication in their reporting and Psychological Care could help foster their work. The workshop which was part of the Community Journalism Project run by Draufsicht Bamenda of which CCMN Journalists were trained focused on different presentations tasked to/by different facilitators.
After a word of welcome from the Coordinator of Draufsicht Bamenda, Mr Dzebam Godlove, kick- started the capacity building workshop with a presentation focused on the concept of Nonviolent Communication, NVC ,the basics of NVC as discussed by Marshall Rosenberg which rhymed from Coming up with an empathic connection rather than the mainstream sympathy, everyone being equal without leaving out the key processes of NVC being Observation, Feelings and Needs. According to him, Observation is one of the most relevant of the processes because it warrants a journalist to observe void of Judgement, dishing out clear facts and leaving the audience to judge. This point was buttressed by a quote from Marshall Rosenberg which goes
‘Never give people a chance to make you rebel "
The quote ended the first presentation of the session and Mr. Emmanuel Mbunwi brought in as facilitator for Psychological Care and Trauma Resilience. To him, the presentation seeks to help participants understand the terms of Stress and Trauma as well as having a clear view of their differences given the fact that journalists who possess so much information come across some which distort their minds and work. Following some explanations dished out, Participants were shared into 4 groups by the facilitator and topics dished out to the different groups to work on. The exercise consisted on topics like; Stress and its manifestations, Trauma and its manifestations, Similarities between Stress and Trauma and drawing a line between Stress fter the the different groups presentation, corrections and contributions followed suit. It should be noted that, the Facilitator and some Participants while dishing out contributions shared some of their experiences as per the presentation. Some journalists complained how images of death bodies seen , pressure from work or meeting a deadline has greatly affected their mental state but they were able to get through by talking to people, diverting to other things, and many others. At the end of Mr. Mbunwi presentation, he highlighted some key notes in relation to Stress and Trauma amongst which are; It is Okay to have stress so far as it does not lead to trauma, One has the power to determine what to do in such scenarios of stress and trauma, We can make positive use of stress but not allow it to resonate to trauma just name a few.
While thanking participants for showing up at a short time, Draufsicht Coordinator Mr Dzebam Godlove noted that this exercise was to commemorate the International World Press Freedom Day celebrated on May 3rd. At a time when the North West Region is still experiencing arm conflicts, he further notes that the workshop was centered on Non-violent Communication and Psychological Care because it seeks to help journalists whose mental health as been affected due to what the see on the field.
" Our main concern as organization first is to help journalist who are doing the most of the work on the field, who see most of the killings, the torture, who see most of the human right abuses and are traumatized"
The session concluded with an exercise from CCMN National President Rose Obah, which meant to commemorate the International World Press Freedom Day celebrated under the theme “Information as a Public Good”. This involved the participants posing with posters carrying messages in the field of the Press.
By Pechuqui Laurata
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