A 3 hours session organized by Draufsicht on Wednesday May 5th at the Presbyterian Church Center Mankon, saw the training of over 20 journalists on how the use of 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, with focus on different presentations and tasks by different facilitators.
After a word of welcome from the Coordinator of Draufsicht Bamenda, Mr. Dzebam Godlove, the capacity building workshop, kicked started with a presentation focused on the concept of Nonviolent Communication, NVC. The basics of NVC, as discussed by Marshall Rosenberg, rhymed 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 Judgment, dishing out clear facts and leaving the audience to judge. This point was buttressed by a quote from Marshall Rosenberg ‘Never give people a chance to make you rebel and to submit’
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 given 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 and Trauma. After the different groups’ presentation, corrections and contributions followed suit. It should be noted that, Facilitator and some Participants while share contributions, used some of their experiences as per the presentation. Some journalists complained how images of death bodies seen, pressure from work or meeting a dateline 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’s 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 to name a few.
While thanking participants for showing up at a short notice, 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 has been affected due to what they see on the field.
“Our main concern as organization first is to help journalists who are doing 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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