Abstract:

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) gave some funding to the South Pacific Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development (SPISARD) through the Department of Agriculture, Papua New Guinea University of Technology (PNGUT) to train rural women and youth at selected project villages of SPISARD. The trainings were based on the needs of the participants identified in project villages.

The trainings were on life improvement skills, rice farming, vegetable farming, inland fish farming, adult literacy and family hygiene and HIV/AIDS awareness.
Trainings were then conducted at West Taraka and Tent City Peri-urban Settlements, Lutheran Women Group, Poahum village and Potsy village from February – May 2009.
Different training delivery methods including, lectures, demonstrations, field visits, and awareness in combination with power point presentation, video, and posters, were used to successfully accomplish the training objectives. The results of the trainings were collected through pre and post evaluations to find out the participants’ knowledge and their attitude towards the training.

Different styles of cooking and sewing taught were something new to most of the participants. In addition, soap and dishwashing paste was totally new to all the participants who attended this training. Most of the participants have since implemented the knowledge gained from the trainings.
The students in adult literacy training gained high knowledge and have since implemented it. Most of them had achieved the objectives of the training.

Majority of the farmers in rice training planted rice before but have never attended rice training. The rice seeds were obtained from National Agricultural Research Institute. The participants have since put into practice the knowledge gained from the training.

Most of the participants in family hygiene and HIV/AIDS awareness were between the ages of 16 to 20 years. Most of the participants practiced family hygiene on weekly basis and some practiced it daily. This training has given them good knowledge on family hygiene and they have since put into practice what they learnt. The participants have heard of HIV/AIDS but had medium knowledge on HIV/AIDS.

Overall, the participants have shown positive reactions towards the trainings. The following recommendations were made based on the results:

- All the steps involved in cooking and sewing must be written in the local vernicular, Tok Pidgin for the participants to understand.
- Demonstrate on how to fix minor problems with manual sewing machine.
- Caustic soda is an important ingredient used in making soap. Other substitutes for caustic soda should be researched on and recommended.
- Follow-up on the performance of the trainers who attended the Adult Literacy Training and organize for in-service classes to refresh the trainers.
- Need training on field demonstration to compliment the information presented during the classes on rice farming training.
- Provide booklet on steps involve in rice farming and all written in Tok Pidgin so that the farmers in the village can understand.
- Provide pamphlets on family hygiene, written in Pidgin version.
- Organize an awareness on gender equality because its one of the problems that is currently faced in communities today.

The full paper will talk details of the activities on power point with pictures during conference.
The poster paper will exhibit all the activities based on modules.

Keywords:

Trainings, Delivery methods, Women and Youths.