The Training of Trainers Manual - UNFPA

written on the flip chart (if they are appropriate). For an example, see the Gender,
Not Sex exercise (page 67).
Another way to introduce a topic could be to get participants to fill in a brief
questionnaire on the subject. Sometimes a facilitator may choose to use some
improvisational role plays as an introduction to a topic. For other examples, see
the exercises, Role Play Revolution on page 50 and Peer Education Password on
page 54).
Exercise: How careful are we with our health
Objectives
To encourage participants to consider that many people behave in
a manner that is not in the best interest of their health
10-15
minutes
To help increase participants’ understanding about human
behaviour and the discrepancy between what we know and how
we behave
Materials
A chair for each participant
Also suitable for
training of peer
educators
Process
Have all participants stand in front of their chairs. Introduce the exercise by saying:
‘To start this exercise, you all need to stand in front of your chairs. I’m going to read
out some statements. If your answer to one of them is “no”, you have to sit down.
As long as you can reply “yes” to the statements, you remain standing. But once
you are seated, you remain seated, even if your answer to following statements is
yes. For example, if the first statement is “I get regular medical check-ups” and you
do not have regular medical check-ups, you have to sit down and remain seated.’
Explain two additional rules: ‘Sometimes someone has to sit down right away,
after the first or second statement. If the order of statements had been different,
they might have still been standing. They might ask if they can stand up again. But
participants may not stand up once they have had to sit down. This might not seem
fair, but that is how this exercise works. Also, someone may say, for example, “Oh,
sure, I get regular medical check-ups. Let’s see, I think my last one was in 1998!”
We have to decide together how frequent “regular” is in this exercise, but it must
be reasonable; regular is not once every ten years!’
40 Training of Trainers Manual