Wise Choices for Life has a unique approach to training communities. We work at a grassroots level, maximising opportunities to support localisation and independence for our Partners. Our specialisation: reproductive health and life skills training and facilitating participants’ exploration as to how this can equip and empower them to ultimately break their poverty cycle. Through a philosophy of ‘passing on your newly-found knowledge’, participants disseminate the information, quickly multiplying the reach.
1. WE TRANSFORM WHOLE COMMUNITIES BECAUSE WE:
- Recognise and respect the importance of faith, culture and the traditional leaders as being the key drivers of change.
- Train women and men in reproductive health and life skills; how to develop safe relationships, apply critical thinking and wise decision making, respect and care for women (from dating, during pregnancy and birthing), become responsible caring parents and plan ahead for a family where every child can be nurtured and supported.
- Pass on health information to those from non-medical backgrounds.
- Produce professional training kits usually reserved for medical schools.
- Use training methods that can be further utilised in a variety of learning settings.
- Work with the local government of the country we work in to serve them in their mission to reduce poverty.
2. WE ARE STRONG ON CAPACITY BUILDING
One of our key aims is to build the capacity of our Partners.
There are many community development organisations doing amazing work. But we have found there is a significant lack of people who are confident to talk with understanding about sex, conception, pregnancy and issues of reproductive health.
We provide a tool for these organisations, so that their staff are trained to talk about the core issues of sexuality. Professional development is provided for teams, so staff also grow in their own ability and learn the skills of being a facilitator and trainer.
Teenage pregnancy is an issue that impacts many levels of society, and when it discussed, addressed and reduced, then all other community development work will benefit:
- There will be less need for orphanages
- Educating girls will be easier as they can be kept in school
- School class sizes can become more manageable
- There can be a reduction in crime, and less young girls on the street
- There will be fewer single mothers for the community to care for
3. We assist in the achievement of THE UNITED NATIONS’ Sustainable Development Goals in the following ways:
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The 17 Goals are all interconnected in order to leave no one behind by 2030…
Wise Choices for Life has a unique approach to training communities. We work at a grassroots level, maximising opportunities to support localisation and independence for our Partners. We educate and community leaders in reproductive health and life skills training and explore together how this can equip and empower them to ultimately break their poverty cycle.
We teach the poorest of the poor about child spacing so they can make wise choices about the number of children they can afford to feed, clothe, educate and look after, enabling their families and their children to escape the poverty trap.
Poverty has become intergenerational with a lack of appropriate training to encourage debate on the cultural and spiritual issues around sexuality. Training young people, parents, pastors, and community leaders how to break the chain will lead to a reduction of extreme poverty.
By training key leaders to pass on information about the importance of family planning, they are empowered to make decisions to support their families. For many women, the ability to control the number of children they have is inexistent, thus making it extremely hard for families in poverty to provide for their many children’s needs. As a result of this problem, many children in large families suffer from hunger and malnutrition. We aim to alleviate the lack of education concerning reproductive health and choices. We place great importance on providing individuals with support and information on family planning and avoiding teenage pregnancy to ensure that they can feed and provide for their children.
Our goal is to help develop thriving communities where every child is born into a caring, healthy and loving family. Our training encompasses care for our bodies, recognising and celebrating our uniqueness and having relevant information to be able to make good choices for our lives and relationships. We believe that our physical, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing are all important for good health.
A teenage girl cannot receive a quality education if she falls pregnant before she finishes her schooling. We are teaching school children reproductive health, and are giving them information to empower them to avoid pregnancy or even more serious outcomes associated with teenage pregnancies. Girls and boys very easily can leave school prematurely if they think they have no hope for their future and fail to reach their full potential.
Irrespective of cultural norms, equality matters, especially in a patriarchal society. Our training reinforces the value and significance of males and females, and seeks to transform the current thinking around gender. We are seeking to demonstrate that gender balance impacts society and family life. Every gender is valuable, and baby girls need love as well as baby boys.
Our training teaches responsibility for rivers and waterways by carefully and mindfully managing the resources of the environment. We highlight the impact of rubbish such as plastic bags and containers that pollute the waterways. We discuss soil erosion and how over-farming the land results in landslides and contamination of water. And make the connection to the need to preserve adequate water and supplies, responsible food production and agriculture by not over-populating.
With little access to reliable, modern electricity, communities are forced to use cooking and heating fuels, combustibles that are unsafe. Our training raises discussion around alternative fuels and the opportunity to cook outdoors to at the very least minimise indoor pollution.
Encouraging people to have hope and not be defeated enables them to see the significance and meaning in being employed. This contributes to society in many ways and enriches the family unit. Poverty increases if people do not have enough finances to support their families and communities, resulting in continued decline in growth and a drain on already-stretched natural and economic resources.
Individuals who are helpless and hopeless to raise themselves out of the poverty trap of many generations are unable to contribute to great developments of the world. All they can manage is a hand-to-mouth existence, with no energy or inclination to better themselves or their society. WCFL training is pro-active in encouraging every person to be a contributor to their world and be mindful of their greenhouse gas emissions and how it impacts.
Wise Choices for Life supports Kofi Anan as he adequately states that “The Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger cannot be achieved if questions of population and reproductive health are not squarely address, and this means stronger efforts to promoted women’s rights and greater investment in education and health including reproductive health and family planning.” – Kofi Anan
We aim to bring awareness of the impact that high population growth has on a nation. Each person needs to be responsible to care for their community and realise that the health of their local environment is crucial to everybody’s wellbeing.
Unsustainable population increase has put pressure on the land’s and ocean’s capacity to feed everyone. This has caused the destruction of the ecosystem and inefficiency in resource distribution to meet the basic needs of the people. Destruction of forests has meant many animal habitats are lost and pollution such as plastics choke waterways. Awareness of responsible management of natural resources is key to reversing these destructive trends. Our training allows participants to understand how our actions every day impacts our ecosystem and biodiversity.
We recognise that overpopulation can lead to family and tribal disputes over land and inheritance. Many conflicts within communities have even led to violence and wars. Economic growth is impacted when hospitals become overcrowded, schools have too many students for available resources and teachers, and inadequate sanitation can lead to disease and an ongoing cycle of demand on every precious dollar within the poor nations. Our training empowers whole communities to build strong institutions that include family, relationships, marriage and education.
WCFL establishes Training and Corporate Partnerships with like-minded organisations all over the world to collaborate and share our work, knowledge and skills to empower whole communities. Together we are stronger than if we were working in isolation.
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