I WAS asked by Philip Kai, the drug and alcohol director in Simbu, to assist him at a workshop organised by a non-governmental organisation, Community Development Agency, last November.
The 10-day Drugs and Alcohol workshop was conducted with support from the Law and Justice Sector at the Mingende Pastoral Centre.
While Philip was disseminating the content knowledge on alcohol and drugs, I took the opportunity to test my recently-designed training in self-management approach to solving human problems.
Last week, the group gathered again for a debriefing on personal change and evaluation of drug and alcohol awareness in the Gumine district.
At the end of the workshop, I had also asked for an evaluation report of the self-management approach and was quite thrilled that it seemed to have an instant shift in paradigm for those participants, a few of whom were regarded as hardcore marijuana addicts.
However, relying on workshop outcomes was never a true reflection of real changes, so I expected a report back in two months on the changes that occurred at home.
The two reports below were taken from what happened during the time. The first statement (per verbatim), is from a student from Aiyura National High School, who attended the workshop.
“One very bad thing about myself is that I am a shy guy and don’t have confidence in myself. At school, I always feel shy and try to hide myself from others. I don’t know why but that habit was already building inside me. I don’t walk on footpath, instead, move around the back of classroom when shifting from class to class, because I am very nervous and feel very shy to walk in front of girls and other students.
“At church too, I don’t take part in activities but just sit on the chair listening to what is shared. Sometimes we normally practise songs to present it to the audience at the church, but when the time for presentation comes, I always give excuses because I don’t have confidence.
“When I attended self-management workshop at the pastoral centre (Mingende), it’s a different story now. Going back home, I thought about the things I have learnt about determinism, sub-personality work, empowerment of will and mind, and confidence starts building up. From there I started to put it into practice by walking in the public places like market with short beach wear, where I never did before.
“Whenever challenges come, I always think about building the will power which I learned.
“Finally, one big challenge that came across my life was the public awareness on drug and alcohol. I was nervous but I know that’s the only chance to build my confidence so I just did it. The first public speech was very challenging but after that the rest seemed as though I have done it a hundred times before.
“Now I am a very confident guy who can stand in front of a big crowd and feel very confident in myself that I can do the impossible.”
The second testimony is from a self-employed young man in the Gumine district.
“Right after the self-management workshop in Mingende Pastoral Centre, I went home The very next day onwards, I read over and over the handouts on self-management training and then got my marker and on an A4 paper wrote three words in bold print and pinned it on the wall of my house. These three words are freedom, autonomy and responsibility.
“Being a citizen of a democratic country, I have the freedom to decide what I want and desire; nobody enslaves me as in communist countries.
“I have the autonomy to say yes or no to any outside influence. Having realised that being a Christian, I should know the universal law of love and to take the responsibility to help others and contribute to society and the world. The Wright Brothers took the risk to invent plane and today it takes me an hour to travel from here to POM. What can I invent to contribute to the next generation?
“Freedom and autonomy without responsibility is a selfish attitude, thus today many rich people are selfish whereby no revolution occur in terms of remedy in our society.
“We are still in the environment of chronic cycle from the outside influences.
“After mediating on these three key words, including the important notes in the handouts, I have made a new start in my personal life.
“Today, my business is gradually recovering. The newly-formed Mian Community Cooperation Kirapim Hauslain sought my help so I assisted them. My house is there for meetings and office space, and I, as their secretary, do the administration job like writing meeting minutes and drafting our constitution prior to opening a bank account and applying for registration.
“I, too, recently founded another organistion called Gumine Coffee Cooperative for the whole Mian people.
“Four years ago, when I was in Madang, the local singers asked me to write songs for them and two years ago being a caretaker pastor of Four Square church, my short sermons usually inspired the congregation. By then, for some time, I lived in an environment of confusion without proper dreams in my life. Now after the self-management workshop, I began to realise the potential within me.
“I am thinking of going back to my pastoral work in the near future. But in the meantime, I am on my way to completing my sixth song that I wrote and composed while strumming my old guitar.”
Similar experiences from other participants will be shared and commented on in the coming weeks. However, after the debriefing last week, there have been a 95% success rate on the self-management approach to problem solving – not bad for the first experiment.
It has taken me over four years to configure information on personal change to come up with one that I imagine would make an impact.
Thus, those workshop participants will be monitored for the next two years to see if the self-management approach is the appropriate tool in solving the attitude and behaviourial problems prevalent among our people.