Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights held its fifth training workshop for social workers in Helwan district on Sunday and Monday, July 15 - 16, 2012, under the title "Raising the capacity of social workers on how to resolve disputes and provide advice to the families of prisoners and detainees"
This meeting comes within the activities of the project of Integrated protection for the families of prisoners and detainees, "the integration and rehabilitation "which is funded by the Swiss Foundation Drosos, and seeks to improve the economic and social conditions for families of prisoners and detainees through a range of different development interventions, in the six districts and centers of Ghadaria in governorates of Cairo and Giza.
In the training workshop, 23 has participated from social workers in schools and the Ministry of Social Affairs, and NGOs, by an increase of 15% over the target number.
The training included three main pivots and components. The first is the theoretical lectures and brainstorming for the participants, and the second is the working groups and display output, and the third is the practical case. The goal of these three components is to give participants the knowledge required on the one hand and skills that will be applied on the other hand.
The training focused on some of the techniques of conflict resolution within the family prisoners and detainees, such as mediation style and features that should be enjoyed by the mediator, negotiation and methods that negotiator should be professional of them and arbitration, including its components and conditional and family counseling.
The outputs of the working groups and the dealing of trainees with practical cases have revealed that they are highly absorbed the training material and their capacity of knowledge, tools and skills that were focused on. Trainees were very enthusiastic about their application of they have learned both within the institutions in which they work or through units of advice and support of the project, which will start its work in September 2012.
It is worth mentioning that the training program has included the participation of an Iraqi delegation of experts of Jurists to view the techniques of the project for dealing with the families of prisoners and detainees, particularly with regard to provide social and psychological support and advice and training of relevant stakeholders in this regard. It is expected the transfer of this expertise to Iraqi organizations interested in issues of families of prisoners and detainees.