The BYU team along with two of BCF’s local coordinators.

In January, myself (Adrian Glover) and fellow BYU students Brenden Garrett, Westin Wong and McKay Rentz along with professors Josh West, Ben Crookston and Cougar Hall traveled to Coronel Oviedo, Paraguay, where we facilitated a day-long training for nine of BCF’s local coordinators from across the country. We were aided by Nadia, BCF volunteer from Guatemala. The training helped familiarize coordinators with newly developed lesson materials that coordinators will use to provide parents of enrolled children with valuable health education, as well as reviewed screening procedures. The lesson plans cover topics including clean water, breastfeeding, and dietary practices and will enable parents to improve the well-being of their children. The lesson plans are also accompanied by training videos which we were able to show to the local coordinators, who gave us their feedback. Once their feedback is incorporated, the videos will be made available to local coordinators in other countries where BCF works.

Meeting the local coordinators and hearing their stories was a wonderful experience. The coordinators shared with us that they look forward to trainings as an opportunity to come together and discuss how to overcome challenges they face in their work. They are extremely passionate about helping the children they work with and there were many lively discussions about how to do so over the course of the training. We were also able to sit down with them for lunch and learn more about their lives. I was impressed with how involved they are with BCF, but also by how engaged and successful they are in their family, church, and career activities.

Local coordinators who participated in the training.

Coordinators chat during the training.