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Following
discussions at the MAPW National Conference in
August between Daniele Viliunas, the Queensland Coordinator of MAPW and
Regional Vice-President of IPPNW, Veevek Thankey and Dave Chessor,
medical
students at the University of
Queensland,
and myself, it was decided that I would
travel to Queensland
to conduct a NWIP training event for MAPW Queensland. In hindsight the
preparation phase for this weekend would have benefited from more
regular
communication between the involved parties as final turn-out was lower
than had
been hoped.
The
location, for which we are utterly grateful to Daniele,
was a holiday house on North Stradbroke Island
off the coast of Queensland.
Daniele’s willingness to allow the world of NWIP to invade her family
holiday
and take everyone along for the ride was amazing, and her gracious
hosting
meant we not only learned lots but were restored by being there.
The program,
over 2
1/2 days, was to work through the bulk
of the NWIP training modules. Nothing like this has been done before
with MAPW students. On the first day we worked through the Health and
Security module
followed on the 2nd day by the Disarmament Crash Course, and it was
all tied together by a session on Dialogue Technique on the last day,
which led
into a discussion about the future involvement and roles of those
present. As is customary with NWIP events, the flip chart paper and
big fat pens were in constant use, and the occasional powerpoint
presentation
rounded things out.
My impressions
of the
training weekend were that above all,
we must be flexible and adaptable in the project. This means making a
greater
effort to include students in other disciplines such as education and
social
sciences as we have much to learn from them. The small group we worked
with
were wonderful and gave so much of themselves to ensure that everyone
learned
something. Speaking personally I think areas for development are better
timekeeping and increased sensitivity to the emotional impact of
powerpoint
images, particularly images of the devastation caused by nuclear
weapons.
Although it was exciting to be able to put the whole program together
and present
all of the material, it would be ideal to have more than one person
facilitating the training. Now that we have a group of trained
students, this
will be possible next time. Throughout the training I was reminded of
the many
strengths of the NWIP – participants not only acquire and consolidate a
great
deal of knowledge, but also learn new skills for group work and are
able to add
new techniques to their toolboxes. And the equipping for disarmament
activities
is also equipping for peace work in the broadest sense. Furthermore,
the
training is an empowering process, in which control over material is
passed on
and shared collectively. I also have to stress how impressed I am with
the
training materials NWIP has developed for such events. I found them
very easy
to use and framed with just enough detail. I have been involved in the
project
for just over a year and this is the first time I have led training
events by
myself, but the task was made easy by the resources at my disposal.
The principal
goal of
the training event was to increase the
number of MAPW students who are NWIP trained. This ensures we are ready
to send
people on NWIP delegations in the future, particularly to China
next year, and also means we
have students who can train other students locally. This goal was
achieved and
we will now be in a good position, finances providing, to increase Australia’s
participation in the NWIP. Because of the transferability of the skills
and
knowledge, the follow on effects of this training event could be
significant
and impact several areas of MAPW work, not least because Daniele
Viliunas also
participated fully in the training, enhancing synergies between student
and
doctor activities.
Ruth Mitchell
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FromOctober
29th-31st, Ruth Mitchell of the Australian IPPNW Affiliate MAPW
organized a training session for Australian students interested in NWIP
work.