During January 17th to 18th ,2018, the volunteers’ course of the project for children with cognitive disabilities has been successfully held in Xuchang of Henan Province. This course is an important part of the project which is supported by CCC & TSPM and EEAM. It was jointly organized by Beiguan Church and Bo’ai Children’s rehabilitation Center.

43 volunteers from Xuchang and Jiaozuo, project leaders, people from churches, and 2 experienced lecturers with special experience in the field of children with cognitive disabilities participated in this course. 2 kindergarten teachers from Pucheng of Shaanxi Province were also invited to participate in the course. During this course, the volunteers were trained from three aspects of sense of worth, knowledge and ability in the form of experiential learning.

The transmission of values in the face of children ran through the course. Arranging seats before the start of the training let the volunteers realize the importance of giving the service people a full autonomy. The alternative interpretation of the "robbing chair game" gave volunteers more understanding of the "obstacle". Volunteers experienced daily life of people with visual impairment, people with body impairment or deaf-mutes by being blindfolded, held hands and feet or covered ears to complete some missions. Then, they shared their feelings about moving, sympathy, equality, esteem and trust after this kind of experiences.

During the course, lecturers invited some volunteers to act as child with cognitive disabilities, father, mother, other children, neighborhoods, volunteers and so on. They learned some serving knowledges, such as how to communicate with parents, how to build relationship with families, how to react with children and some other questions, by playing sitcom. In addition, volunteers also acquired many experiences from cases shared by lecturers.

In group activities, volunteers discussed the problems and challenges that may be encountered in the process of service, and discussed the solutions together under the guidance of lecturers. Subsequently, each group acted as a volunteers group and a children group in turn. The volunteers group leaded the children group to play games. The groups experienced the process in person and made improvements to each other.

At the end of the course, volunteers expressed their thoughts on the training with "harvest", "happiness", "persistence", "satisfaction", "growth", "dedication”, "service"…… They wrote in the questionnaires that they were very grateful for this opportunity. Through this volunteers’ course, they understood the service value of volunteers, learned professional knowledge and improved their service capabilities, and the expectations of family visits and specific services were fully anticipated. They believed that the ability of the church to participate in social services will be raised to a new level.◆

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