Project Cycle Sessions​

​

In the first sessions focusing on the project cycle, the young people continued the exercise they had begun in the previous session, during which they identified the opportunities and challenges at their school by completing the activity “My School: Empathy and Problem Definition.”

 

​The first part of the activity was titled “Do I Think the Same Way You Do? - Empathy.” After the last session, the facilitator had created summary sheets of the ideas collected by each group, and these were shared with the other groups (the sheets were not labeled so that no one would know which group they belonged to), so that they could rank them in order of importance, just as they had done with the material they had collected. Subsequently, the following questions were posed to the students:​

• “Did you notice any similarities among the things that were noted?”

• “Was there anything you hadn’t noted down, but that seemed important to you when you saw that other groups had noted it?”

• “Is there anything noted by other groups that you don’t consider a problem or an opportunity?”

 

​After this moment of reflection, each group received the evaluation sheets that the other groups had filled out regarding the items they had collected. The students were asked whether the other groups’ evaluations differed significantly from the ones their own group had completed earlier, and the concept of Empathy¹ - the first step in the project cycle - was introduced.

 

The next phase of the activity was the “Problem Tree—Problem Definition.” After explaining the concept of empathy and introducing the project cycle, the students focused on the second stage: Problem Definition². In this part, they had to work on the challenge that had been identified as the most problematic by the other groups and first determine whether this was the problem itself or a cause/consequence of another factor. After identifying the actual problem, they had to create their “Problem Tree” based on the following guidelines:​​

• Roots (Causes);

• Trunk (Central Problem);

• Branches (Consequences).

 

In the end, each group presented its tree to the others, and a discussion took place on whether anything could be added to any of the trees and whether they had been constructed logically.

​

​​

¹ Understanding users’ problems: when we intend to address an issue, we must understand its relevance to the target audience, identify their real needs, and determine whether what may be seen as a problem by outsiders is actually an issue for the audience. (e.g., the issue of wells in Africa).

² At this stage, it is important to truly understand what the problem is, its cause, and the initial issue you want to address.