A group of students attended a workshop on Emotional Resilience Skills Building at the Youth Friendly Integrated Centre in Gelegphu.
The workshop organised by the Youth Development Fund on the theme “Reaching in, Reaching out” was aimed at increasing emotional resilience and decrease instances of negative or risky ways of coping with difficult situations.
Pema Wangdi from the Youth Participation and Child Protection Division, YDF said that with most students staying at home due to the current pandemic situation they are going through a lot because they have to do assignments, attend to household chores and they have so many things going on in their mind. “When they stay home and do not have good ways to spend time then it will have a negative impact on the youth,” said Pema.
Through this workshop, they hope youth will learn, understand and be able to respond to a stressful situation in a more objective manner.
“Before they are able to understand the situation, they have to understand themselves, be aware of themselves, their strength and weakness. They work on their weakness, cope with more healthy habits, healthy coping skills and reach out to their friends and community,” added Pema Wangdi.
Speaking to BBS, one of the participants, Damcho Choden Namgyel said that through the workshop she has been able to understand what resilience means. She said she is learnt about self-awareness and coping skills with five sense organs.
“I now possess the skills to deal with conflict and have learnt how to be open-minded and share experiences,” said Damcho.
20 students from classes 9, 11 and a few class 12 pass-outs attended the three-day workshop.
Bhutan Youth Development Fund organized the Emotional Resilience Skills Building workshop with support from UNICEF Bhutan. Considering the seriousness and relevance of the issues, suicide prevention was also a part of the workshop.
Karma Wangdi