Gitta Zimmermann, Certified NVC Trainer:

In October 2016, Gitta held her 5th international workshop for people working with street children in Ruhpolding, Germany. This time most of the participants were already experienced, and we were merging more and more into a family. The workshop focus was on "mediation" and "entrepreneurship."

I set the focus on "mediation" and "entrepreneurship". Why? From the other workshops and my experience in some of these countries, I noticed that many people cannot come to training, because they then cannot take care of their daily income and consequently have no food. Moreover, while being hungry, they are not so interested in NVC — at least at the beginning.

Therefore I had the idea to include in this workshop the topic entrepreneurship: how to build their own little business to earn money for food. The participants appreciated it to a great extent and suggested it to their people at home.

At the moment we are supporting about 10 different projects, from a chicken farm for widowed mothers to an orphanage with NVC, to a teaching seminar about gemstones including NVC, baking lectures with NVC in the "oven breaks" and some NVC workshops in several daycare centers. The participants share their knowledge back home in these various possibilities. This has become a workable vision of how to create the chan ge we wish to see in the world.

Please celebrate with me, as many, many children benefit from this work.

Keywords:

- fear

- authenticity

- relationships

- dialogue

- connection

- compassion

- strategies

- self empathy

- honesty

- feelings

- empathy

- teaching NVC

- teaching NVC groups

- education

- children

- Gitta Zimmermann