From Thursday January 27, 2011, a series of trainings will be executed by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in collaboration with the project’s Rwanda Partner Organizations (RPO) to ensure RPOs have the skills, knowledge and resources to support PTCs.  As per the objectives, there will be two tracks of training.

The first track will seek to build PTC capacity in the fundamentals such as project and financial management as well as basic structures of effective PTCs.  This training will be done as a workshop with RPOs and will take two days in duration.

The main objectives of the USAID Higa Ubeho Parent Teacher Committee (PTC) capacity building efforts are:

– To position PTCs to intervene in cases where OVCs are at risk of dropping out of school and

– To build PTC capacity in the fundamentals such as project and financial management as well as basic structures of effective PTCs.

The capacity building efforts are in response to previous activities such as the USAID Higa Ubeho PTC assessment, PTC exchange visit and Post Exchange visits. The approach utilized for the capacity building efforts will be direct assistance by RPOs to PTCs to implement their own school- based activities based on the experiences shared during PTC exchange visits.

CRS will facilitate the workshop and provide a series of tools (e.g. basic project management and financial reporting tools) to be utilized by the RPOs in the trainings they offer to the PTCs.

It is expected that during the workshop RPOs will:

• Identify which school-based activities will be taken on by each PTC based on PTCs involvement in the previously conducted exchange visits.
• Design a comprehensive training—including logistical plans—to be offered to PTCs.
• Complete all tools needed to deliver the training directly with the PTCs. Tools needed to conduct specific types of school-based activities (e.g. PTCs that will raise rabbits will need basic tools regarding care of rabbits).
• Acquire the knowledge, skills and resources needed to support the PTCs implementation of school-based activities
• Create a schedule for the delivery of the training to PTCs and provide guidance on how to conduct step down training directly with PTCs.

Following the workshop, RPOs will be expected to deliver trainings directly with PTCs with the objective to enable the PTCs to design, plan, and implement school-based projects on their own.

The second track of training will support PTCs to intervene in cases where OVCs are at risk of dropping out of school.  It will consist of a two-day workshop in which the toolkit for drop-out prevention is finalized with input from the RPOs and RPOs are prepared to form drop-out prevention teams and train the teams on the kit.

It is expected that during the workshop RPOs will:

• Contribute to the development of the drop-out prevention tool kit to ensure strategies are appropriate for any given sector.
• Develop plan for forming drop-out prevention teams.
• Design training on tool kit implementation for drop-out prevention teams.
• Create a schedule for the delivery of the trainings.

Upon completion of the workshop, RPOs will form drop-out prevention teams in collaboration with PTCs and commence training with the objective that drop-out prevention teams are adequately prepared to intervene in cases where OVCs are at risk of dropping out of school.