My phone rang in the early hours of the night sometime in early January this year. It was my elementary classmate's wife who called, and her request was one I tried very much to decline to no avail. Her sister-in-law, who happened to be a younger sister to my classmate, had asked her to find a medical doctor to serve as a trainer for a campaign she was hosting and championing. First, I had a school examination I was preparing for and told her my contributions could only come in afterwards. Afterwards, I made her realize I could only work with my timing and preferred to be notified long before any scheduling so as to arrange my time appropriately.
Of course, I knew it would be volunteer work since those requesting were students, and thus, I cleared my mind from expecting any incentives. I have engaged in volunteer work in the past, such as outreach that fetched me some tokens as a form of appreciation.
I knew I always had a passion for teaching, one that involved imparting knowledge to others. I was selected to be a trainer amongst other professional colleagues. I accepted the challenge of training advocates for the diagnosis and management of autoimmune disorders. Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to open the floor of the campaign. Initially, I thought we would be given tutoring materials; however, the convener stated that all trainers would have to source materials themselves. My opinion was to have a unified tutoring material where each trainer would be assigned topics to teach and discuss.
I went through available resource materials online and gathered contents to be discussed with the class into Microsoft Word before transferring it to the PowerPoint. I made the design quite attractive and the contents less cumbersome. As much as possible, I made the PowerPoint presentation to be ready much before the date I was supposed to deliver the class. And of course, I submitted a picture of mine, which was added to the flyer as one of the trainers.
Rather than deliver the lecture in a seemingly autocratic manner, I chose to make the class lively by engaging the participants in a form of discussion. My style was to explore the native knowledge and impart what I wanted to teach them in a manner they could easily relate to even through the native knowledge. One thing I realized was that everyone had an idea or opinion that could be explored and navigated in the right direction to serve as a tool both to enhance and disseminate true and accurate information.
The class was lively and I had to hasten up so as to finish the class in due time. I have opportunity for questions and answers and I could feel a lot of enthusiasm from the audience. I expected a good number of their questions especially because they had some misconceptions and inadequate knowledge that needed to be fine tuned.
Though I was not on the platform where the trainees were, a snapshot of their feedback was very encouraging and heartwarming. The convener told me some trainees requested my digits after the interactive sessions also, which she declined. Although I am scheduled to anchor the questions and answer section by Saturday 15th, I had to regrettably cancel as a result of other engagements on the same day.
The convener was so happy that she made the sister-in-law call me to appreciate me and also requested my availability for partnership with the state government, which she was working with when the time comes. I am told a certificate would be issued at the end of the training session for trainers, and I got more feedback even on LinkedIn.
I appreciated the fact that I was available to impact, especially voluntarily, the younger folks, and who knows, better opportunities may be in store.
IMAGE AND SCREENSHOT BY ME
Thank you for reading. I would love to have your comments and contributions.
