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Skills for Life: A Boy’s Story of Transformation

Life Skills Training is an essential part of imagine1day’s program. We train our teachers in effective ways to educate students about topics ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention to early marriage, proper classroom behavior to basic sanitation practices.

In 2009, teachers at Tsehafti Grade 1-8 Community School with Life Skills Training. Records that the school kept show that when the teachers went for training there were 50 students identified as trouble makers in the school. From being rude to their teachers to beating up other students they were the “difficult ones.” But today, just over a year later, that number is down to six.

We’d like to introduce you to 14-year-old Kahsa, who used to be a troublemaker but is now a dedicated Grade 6 student at Tsehafti with a hunger for education.  Here’s his story of change and transformation:

“I used to beat up other students, insult teachers and not respect school rules and regulations. I was so mean that I even used to wait outside on the road after school was finished and beat up the little kids as they came out of the gate.”

“But I got advice from my teachers and started to pay attention in my Civics and Ethics class and I learned that what I was doing was very bad and that I needed to stop. I knew I had to change myself. Today I am in a position to advise others who cause trouble and to explain to them why what they are doing is harmful.”

Kahsa’s Grade 6 teacher, Kiday, and his Advisor, Hadis, were quick to weigh in on their student’s remarkable change in attitude and behaviour:

K: “Kahsa is now a leader in our school. He has learned the true meaning of peace and has become the ideal example of speech, action and spirit for all of our students.”

H: “We owe this change in him and students like him to the Life Skills Training we received from imagine1day. When we went to the training we learned how to solve problems and how to address troubled students in a way that doesn’t make them feel threatened but instead makes them feel valued and capable of much more than just causing trouble.”

K: “The truth is that we knew many of the things Life Skills Training teaches before we took the training. But we only knew them in theory. The great thing about the training was that it gave us the practical tools and skills to bring that theory to life and put it into practice.”

Click here to more about other programs imagine1day is implementing in schools across Northern Ethiopia.