Identifying a Facilitator

Who is a facilitator?

At Vismaya Kalike, the adult in the centre is not positioned as a “teacher” in the traditional sense. A facilitator is someone who holds the space for learning to happen, rather than directing what learning should look like at every moment.

This difference is important.

In many learning environments, adults are expected to instruct, correct, and control. At ViKa, the facilitator’s role is to create conditions where children feel safe to explore, question, and participate. They are not the centre of the learning process - children are.

A facilitator listens more than they speak. They observe how children engage, what interests them, where they struggle, and how they interact with others. Instead of giving answers immediately, they ask questions, encourage thinking, and allow children to arrive at their own understanding.

At a deeper level, the facilitator acts as an advocate for the child. This means taking the child’s side - especially in spaces where children are often judged, compared, or silenced. The facilitator protects the possibility of a learning environment that is joyful, non-threatening, and democratic, where children feel that their presence matters.

Why are facilitators from the community?

One of the most important decisions in ViKa is that facilitators are identified from within the community itself.

This is not just a logistical choice. It is a deeply considered one.

When facilitators come from the same community:

• They share language, culture, and everyday realities with the children
• Trust builds more naturally and more quickly
• Parents and community members feel a stronger sense of ownership
• The centre becomes a community space, not an external intervention

Children are more likely to open up, participate, and return consistently when the adult in the space feels familiar and approachable. The facilitator is not seen as an outsider coming to “teach,” but as someone who is part of the same social world.

This also makes the work more sustainable. When learning spaces are rooted in the community, they are more likely to continue beyond external support.

At the same time, facilitators can be supported by volunteers - students, working professionals, or others - who bring in additional ideas, exposure, and resources. However, the core responsibility of holding the space remains with the community facilitator.

What does a facilitator actually do?

In practice, a facilitator’s role includes:

• Creating a welcoming and safe environment for children
• Initiating and supporting games, activities, and discussions
• Observing children’s interests and participation
• Encouraging collaboration rather than competition
• Asking questions that help children think more deeply
• Supporting children through conflict, frustration, and failure
• Gradually building a culture where children take ownership of the space

The facilitator is constantly balancing when to step in and when to step back. This is not easy. It requires attention, reflection, and patience.

Qualities to look for in a facilitator :

Rather than formal qualifications, what matters most are dispositions and ways of relating to children.

1. Trust in children and their agency

A facilitator should believe that children are capable of thinking, deciding, and learning. This shows up in small ways — allowing children to make choices, listening to their ideas, and not shutting down questions.

This trust is foundational. Without it, the space can easily slip back into control and instruction.

1. Patience and willingness to stay with the process.

Change in children does not happen immediately. Confidence, participation, and curiosity take time to build.

A facilitator needs to be comfortable with slow, uneven progress - where some days feel energetic and others feel difficult. The ability to stay with the process, without rushing outcomes, is essential.

1. Non-judgmental attitude

Many children come into the centre carrying experiences of being judged - for their marks, behaviour, or abilities.

A facilitator must be careful not to reproduce this.

This means:

• No scolding or hitting
• No labelling children as “good” or “weak”
• No comparison between children

Instead, the facilitator responds with curiosity: Why is this child disengaged? What are they trying to express?

1. Ability to listen and observe

Good facilitation depends less on speaking and more on paying attention.

Noticing:

• Who is participating and who is silent
• What kinds of activities engage different children
• How children respond to each other

1. Openness to learning

Facilitators are not expected to “know everything.” In fact, the most important quality is the willingness to learn alongside children.

This includes:

• Trying new activities
• Reflecting on what worked and what didn’t
• Being open to feedback from children and peers
• Becoming a facilitator is a journey

It is important to recognise that facilitators are not “perfect” from the beginning.

Most facilitators begin with habits shaped by their own schooling - giving instructions, expecting correct answers, controlling behaviour. Over time, through workshops, reflection, and experience, they begin to shift.

They start:

• Asking more questions instead of giving answers
• Allowing more freedom in activities
• Listening more carefully to children
• Trusting the process of learning

This transformation is gradual, and it is supported by the broader ViKa ecosystem - through workshops, peer learning, and reflection spaces.

Why does the facilitator matter so much?

The facilitator is not just managing the centre - they are shaping the culture of the space.

A space can have materials, games, and resources, but without the right facilitation, it can still feel restrictive or unwelcoming. On the other hand, even a simple space can become rich with learning when a facilitator creates an environment of trust, curiosity, and participation.

In this sense, the facilitator is not delivering learning. They are making learning possible.

What if we cannot find a facilitator within the community?

This question comes up often, especially when we begin working with communities that have faced deep and long-term marginalisation - for example, waste-picking communities, migrant settlements, or areas where access to formal education has been extremely limited.

Sometimes, it may genuinely feel like there is no adult or teenager with basic literacy or numeracy skills who can take on the role of a facilitator.

At first glance, this may appear as a limitation. But at Vismaya Kalike, we try to approach this situation differently.

Beginning with trust in the community :

The starting point is a simple but demanding belief: the solution must come from within the community itself.

When a learning centre is imagined as something “brought into” a community by external actors, it often remains dependent, fragile, and disconnected from people’s lived realities. But when the community has a stake in the space - when it sees the centre as its own - different possibilities begin to emerge.

Even in communities that seem to lack formal educational qualifications, there are always individuals who:

• Care deeply about children
• Show responsibility in everyday life
• Respected or trusted by others
• Are willing to learn

These qualities matter more than formal qualifications.

If we leave the process open and engage the community in conversation - Who can hold this space? Who will children feel comfortable with? Who is willing to try?

The community often identifies someone we may not have initially recognised.

Moving away from qualification-based thinking :

It is important to acknowledge that if we define facilitators only through literacy, numeracy, or formal education, we risk excluding precisely those communities we aim to work with.

Formal qualifications are often a result of privilege - access to schooling, stability, and opportunity. If we make them a strict requirement, we unintentionally reproduce the same inequalities we are trying to address.

At ViKa, the focus is therefore not on what a facilitator already knows, but on their capacity to grow.

Just as children are seen as learners, facilitators are also learners.

Many of our facilitators did not begin with confidence or formal skills. Over time, through experience, reflection, and support, they developed the ability to hold spaces, engage children, and think critically about learning. This process cannot be rushed, but it is possible.

Building facilitator aptitude over time :

In contexts where literacy levels are low, the approach shifts from “finding the right person” to growing a facilitator over time.

This includes:

• Starting with simple activities that do not depend on reading or writing
• Using games, storytelling, and conversation as entry points
• Building confidence through small successes
• Supporting facilitators through regular workshops and peer learning

The aim is not to “fix” the facilitator, but to walk alongside them as they grow into the role.

When the community itself is unsure :

There may be moments when the community struggles to identify anyone at all. In such cases, it is important not to immediately step in and “solve” the problem from the outside.

Instead:

• Continue engaging with the community
• Spend time understanding relationships and dynamics
• Create opportunities for people to step forward gradually

Sometimes, the person who eventually becomes a facilitator is not the most obvious choice at the beginning.

Working with partner organisations :

In some situations - especially when working in new geographies or highly vulnerable communities - partnerships with other organisations can play an important role.

However, this needs to be approached carefully.

Many organisations working in such communities may be used to top-down models, where programmes are designed and implemented for the community rather than with them. While well-intentioned, such approaches can underestimate the capacities and agency of the community itself.

For ViKa to work meaningfully, partner organisations need to internalise the ethos:

• Trust in the community’s capacity
• Willingness to wait for the process to unfold
• Openness to not having immediate answers

Without this, there is a risk that the centre becomes another intervention that is “doing good” for the community, rather than a space that the community owns.

Building Flexible pathways in difficult contexts :

At the same time, ViKa does not need to be rigid.

In contexts where identifying a facilitator locally takes time, some alternative pathways can support the process:

• Connecting with nearby communities or centres to identify potential facilitators
• Engaging local volunteers (college students, youth groups, workers) who can temporarily support the space
• Building networks of organisations and individuals within the geography who can contribute
• Starting small - even informal gatherings with children - until a more stable structure emerges

These are not replacements for a community facilitator, but bridges that allow the process to begin.

Patience with the process :

Perhaps the most important principle in such contexts is patience.

When we try to rush the process - to quickly appoint a facilitator, to quickly “set up” a centre - we may create a space that looks functional on the surface but lacks depth and ownership.

When we stay with the process:

• The community begins to see value in the space
• Relationships strengthen
• Facilitators emerge more organically
• The centre becomes more sustainable