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beginner personal development 8 Modules

A Good Start - Life Skills Component

X
Xavier Project & URISE for Africa
• December 9, 2025
Table of Contents

Course Overview

A Good Start is a course for strengthening personal agency through key life skills. These “life skills” are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable a person to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life, sometimes called “psychosocial competencies”.

While specific skills are particularly relevant to refugee groups in the broader East Africa context, they are ultimately applicable to human beings everywhere, displaced or not.

Origin: The course began as a discussion between Xavier Project and URISE for Africa (Kakuma camp, Kenya) to help communities move from dependency to personal agency.

Rationale & Objectives

The course aims to change mindsets and provide tools for self-sufficiency. Each module targets specific outcomes:

  • Personal Motivations: Increased self-confidence, goal setting, and positive thinking.
  • Human Rights & Conflict: Advocating for rights and peacefully resolving conflicts.
  • Financial Literacy: Budgeting, prioritizing spending, and managing income.
  • Culture: Peacebuilding and intercultural competency.
  • Wellbeing: Stronger self-worth, identifying abuse, and healthy relationships.
  • Marketplace Literacy: Understanding business basics and value chains.
  • Gender: Understanding gender roles, inequality, and striving for inclusivity.

Table of Contents

Module 1: Personal Motivations and Goal-Setting

Envisioned to promote positive mindsets and interactions.

Lessons

Lesson 1: Why Are We Here? - Setting Group Values & Introducing the Journal

1. Introduction Welcome all to your first session of A Good Start. In this session we will outline how we will work together, by agreeing upon some values for the course. You will also receive your own journal that will support your learning throughout the course.

Each session of A Good Start will begin with one or two proverbs that relate to the topics the session will cover. These are our proverbs for today:

“When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion” “No matter how big a farm is, it must have sections”

Ask participants what they think these proverbs mean. We’ll come back to these at the end of the session. Now I want us to go around the room and introduce ourselves. Say your name, and ask everyone else to share theirs.

2. Energiser: “Suddenly” Storytelling Now let’s do an activity. Please sit in a circle. I will start telling a story with one sentence, for example: “Yesterday I was walking home from the market, and suddenly…” We will then go around the room and each person will add on a sentence to the story, finishing their sentence with “and suddenly…” In that way, we will tell a story all together as a class.

Lead the class in the exercise.

Once the session is over: Thanks everyone! Although everyone had different ideas and the story may have become a bit strange, it was great that everyone contributed. it helped us give each person a chance to speak and to listen to everyone’s funny ideas!

3. Setting Agreements and Values for the Course Now let’s come up with some values and agreements for the course, to ensure that we have an environment where everyone feels comfortable and be able to share their thoughts, ideas and feelings.

Let’s try to keep the agreements positive— let’s avoid using words like don’t, shouldn’t, and let’s make sure everyone in the room agrees with each statement.

Ask students to come up with some agreements and values for the course, and write them on a board or on a piece of paper. Some examples you can suggest, if participants are struggling:

  • Listen when others speak
  • Be kind to one another
  • Speak loud enough for everyone in the room to hear
  • Listen and respect everyone’s ideas (even if you do not necessarily agree with them)
  • Be yourself, and let others be themselves
  • Be on time to class
  • Have fun!

When you’re finished, you can either keep them written up on the board for the remainder of the course, or if you wrote them on paper, you can stick them to the classroom wall.

4. Using our Journals For your journey with A Good Start, we are going to give you a gift. This gift is a journal, a small book, that you will use throughout the course to write down or draw your ideas, thoughts, feelings and experiences. It is a very important part of the course, so please make sure that you keep your journal safe and carry it with you to all the classes.

Distribute journals to participants.

Now it is time to make this journal your own! Feel free to draw or write something unique to you on the front of the journal, or on the first place. Give participants time to complete this activity.

5. Meaning of the Proverbs Now let’s go back to the two proverbs that we discussed at the beginning of class:

  • “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion”
  • “No matter how big a farm is, it must have sections”

What do you think these proverbs have to do with the values and agreements that we have decided?

  • The first proverb says it is important to work together to achieve our goals. That is exactly what we hope to achieve in all of our sessions.
  • The second proverb says that it’s our unique skills, ideas, thoughts and feelings make us work better together. Just like it’s a bad idea to plant only 1 type of crop, it’s good to have people with different talents and ideas on a team.

6. Recap What a great first session! As we move through the different modules of A Good Start, we will revisit the agreements and values we set today, and will use our journals for various activities.

I now want to ask each person to say one word to describe how they are feeling after the seminar today. Lead the class in the activity. Ask them if they have any questions about the course going forward. 2. Who Am I?: Self-Perception and discussion. 3. What Motivates Us?: Understanding Internal vs External Motivation. 4. Turning Challenges into Opportunities: Making choices and reframing challenges. 5. Where Am I Going?: Mindfulness, Visualization, and Time Travel activities. 6. Moving towards our Dreams: Goal-Setting Wheel and “Speed Questions”.

Module 2: Human Rights, Problem Solving, Conflict Resolution

Empowering people to be advocates and agents of positive change.

Lessons

  1. What are Rights?: Human qualities, legal definitions, and refugee rights.
  2. Our Rights in Action: Scenarios and standing up for rights.
  3. Rights, Wrongs and Emotions: Recognising feelings (Two Truths and a Lie).
  4. Solving Conflict: The Conflict-Solving Cycle and Roleplay.
  5. Let’s Solve some Conflicts: “Muddling Messages” and solving specific scenarios.

Module 3: Money Matters: Financial Literacy

Supporting business and financial literacy.

Lessons

  1. Purpose of Money: The role of money and how it makes us feel.

Lesson 2: Needs vs Wants

1. Introduction In the last module, we discussed the role of money. We also discussed how it makes us feel when we have a little or a lot of money in our lives. Today we are going to discuss the difference between Wants and Needs in our lives.

Our proverb for today is:

“You should not hoard your money and die of hunger.”

Ask students what this proverb tells us about how we should use our money.

2. Wants and Needs Let’s now explore in a bit more detail the difference between Needs and Wants and why this is important if we are to live happy and healthy lives:

  • Needs are items necessary for your survival, without them you would not be able to survive, or you would compromise your health and wellbeing.
  • Wants are items you buy because they give you pleasure or happiness — but they are not necessary for your survival or wellbeing.

Now I want everyone to list down 3 Wants, and 3 Needs in their lives. Then I want you to switch your lists with a partner (or just tell them your lists), and your partner will have to guess which are the Wants and which are the Needs. Give the class time to complete the exercise.

Once everyone has played the game, ask the entire group the following questions:

  • Was it easy or difficult to identify what was a Want, and what was a Need?
  • Can you give me some examples of needs?
  • Can you give me some examples of wants?

Now let’s have a look at a list of different items as a class, and decide whether they are Wants or Needs. Remember, if you are having difficulty deciding, ask yourself whether the item is really required for your survival and for a healthy life.

Draw a line down the blackboard or the flipchart and label one side as Wants and the other as Needs. Then read out the following list to the class and ask them to decide whether it should be written under Needs or Wants:

  • Gas for cooking
  • A private jet
  • School books
  • Juice
  • Fruits and vegetables
  • School fees
  • A car
  • Rice/ugali/matoke
  • Shoes
  • Biscuits
  • Transport money
  • A TV
  • Rent for a house to live in
  • A computer
  • Meat (kuku, mbuzi etc)
  • Crisps
  • A PS4

Continue until you have placed all the items on the blackboard/chart paper. Is there anything else we should add to the Needs column? Anything that we need in our lives that isn’t being met? Add any additional Needs to the board. Save this list, because you will need it in an upcoming session.

3. The Price of Wants and Needs Now that we have all our Wants and Needs separated on the board, we are going to see how much they cost. Let’s start with the Needs. Let’s decide how much each one costs. Have students name the average cost of each one of the Needs. Once that is done, do the same for the Wants.

Now, can someone add these two columns up for me? Help the participants with this if they are finding it difficult. Once you have done the calculations, ask them the following questions:

  1. What do you notice about the difference in cost between the Needs and the Wants?
  2. Did this difference surprise you?
  3. Is there anything you think should be moved from Needs to Wants now?
  4. How does this make you feel when you see the cost of everything up on the board?
  5. What do feel when our needs are not being met? What do we feel when we are not able to meet our Needs?

Over the next few days, I would like you to think about your own Wants and Needs, and whether you feel there is anything that you can switch from a Need to a Want.

Lesson 3: Values, Needs and Wants

1. Introduction Last seminar we discussed and defined our Needs and Wants, helping us to better understand what they are and how they impact our life. Today we will talk about the role our personal values play in our wants and needs.

Our proverb for today is:

“The wealth which enslaves the owner isn’t wealth.” Think about it and we’ll come back to it.

2. Activity: Our Values Let’s play a game to learn about our personal values. First, I invite you all to stand in a line in front of me. Get students to stand in a line.

The purpose of this game is to understand our different values. I will read a few statements, if you don’t agree with the statement take a step back. If you agree with the statement, take a step forward. Please respond to what applies to you personally, there is no need to agree with the rest and there is no right or wrong answer.

Read the following statements:

  • My family is very important to me. I try to help them as much as I can.
  • Looking cool is very important to me.
  • Being considered an important person is very important to me.
  • My religion is very important to me and I practice it regularly.
  • I need to feel safe and secure to feel comfortable in life.
  • Playing sports is very important to me.
  • Animals/pets are very important to me.
  • Being rich is very important to me.
  • My friends and what they think of me is very important to me.

Now look around… why is everyone in a different place? Get some answers/thoughts from students.

It is because we all have different values and beliefs as individuals. These different beliefs and values are what cause us to prioritize some things over others. This means a Want for some people may be a Need for others.

3. Thinking More about our Values Let’s now think a bit more about our values and beliefs and how they affect our wants and needs, and impact our decision-making. Take some time now to write down (or draw) your values. Give the class time to complete the exercise.

Once you have written down or drawn your values, meet with a partner and discuss how you believe your values affect your wants and needs. What is the relationship between your values and your needs? Give the class time to discuss. After a few minutes, ask if anyone would like to discuss their thoughts with the class.

4. Meaning of the Proverb Now let’s go back to the proverb:

“The wealth which enslaves the owner isn’t wealth.”

Ask the class for ideas on what it means. This proverb states that even if we have a lot of money, we should not ignore our personal values. If our way of making money makes us unhappy — or forces us to live in a way that we feel is bad— than it’s not worth it.

Lesson 4: Prioritising Spending

1. Introduction In the last seminar, we explored our personal values and how they impact our Wants and Needs. Today we are going to take that a step further by talking about prioritizing – that means choosing to spend our money on some Wants and Needs over others.

Our proverb for today is:

“Roadside items are nice, but it takes money to buy”

2. What is Prioritising? What do we mean by prioritizing? Prioritize means that something is more important than something else. To prioritize something means to put it first. How do we prioritize our Needs and Wants? It’s as easy as 1-2-3. Let’s look at the 1-2-3 system to help us explore our priorities and what is important for our health and wellbeing.

1 are Items that are essential for healthy living. Ask the class for examples. 2 are Items that are not essential for healthy living, but are important to us. Ask the class for examples. 3 are Items that are not essential and not important to us. Ask the class for examples.

3. Prioritising Items on our List Let’s look at our list of Needs and Wants from Lesson 2. In pairs, I want you to rank everything on this list using the 1-2-3 system. Divide the class into pairs and give them time to complete the exercise. Support them if necessary. Then ask some pairs to share their lists.

4. Meaning of the Proverb What a great seminar looking at prioritizing! I think we learned a lot about what is most important to us. Now let’s look at the proverb:

“Roadside items are nice, but it takes money to buy”

Ask the class for ideas about what it means. This proverb reminds us that although some things may be nice, they are not always a priority. We must first prioritize the things that will meet our survival needs, before buying our wants.

Over the next few days, think more about the things that are important to you. If you want, take some time to draw them in your journal.

Lesson 5: Budgeting

1. Introduction In the last session we learned about prioritizing our spending. In this session we will discuss budgeting, which means planning our spending so all our needs are met.

Our proverbs for today are:

“Better little than too little.” “You cannot name a child that is not born”

Think about them and we’ll come back to them at the end.

2. Defining Budgeting An important way of learning how to manage our money is learning how to budget. Budgeting means figuring out how much money we have, the things we need or want, how much each item costs – and then prioritizing what we can buy with our money.

So why do we budget? Whether you have a lot of money or just a little, a budget can help you in many ways:

  • If you have a budget and stick to it, you will be less likely to blow your money during random daily spending.
  • A budget can help you reach a financial goal because it controls how much you spend and how much you save.
  • Budgets can help eliminate many money surprises because you’ve planned ahead and know what to expect each month.
  • Budgets help you see exactly where your money goes.

Now let’s think about the steps that are needed when making a budget. To do this, I need 6 volunteers. Ask for 6 volunteers to come up, and give them each a card with the following written on it (this should be prepared in advance):

  • Think about what is most important to spend your money on
  • Add up how much money you have to spend
  • Make a list of what you want to spend your money on, and how much it costs
  • Make sure your expenses are not more than your income
  • Decide how much you want to save
  • Reflect if this budget reflects what you find important

Tell the 6 volunteers to arrange themselves in the order they think is best (the order above is the “correct” order, but don’t tell them this!) Then ask the class if they have any suggestions to change the order. Allow people to move volunteers around until the class reaches a consensus.

3. Exploring an Example Budget Now let’s explore an example budget. Read out the following example:

Amina has a monthly budget of 3000 MWK for her family of 5 people. Her father is ill, and cannot go without medication. Last month she spent almost all the money on medication because he was very ill. So the family is very low on rations, they haven’t eaten for two days.

In groups of 4, I would like your group to use the 1-2-3 priority method to look at this basic list of things and decide how Amina should budget her money. Please decide what she will buy and add up the amount she has spent to make sure you don’t go over the 3000 MWK.

Write this list of items on the board and read it out:

  • Medicine for 1900 MWK
  • Food for 550 MWK
  • New clothes for 1400 MWK
  • Transport money for 250 MWK
  • Snacks for 300 MWK
  • Soda for 100 MWK

Give participants 15 minutes to finish this exercise, and then ask a few groups to share their budgets. Ask participants the following questions:

  • What did your group find most difficult about this exercise?
  • Were you over or under the 3000 MWK?
  • What were the most important items that Amina needed to give her family?

4. Meaning of the Proverbs Nice work! Now let’s take a look at our proverbs and see how they relate to budgeting:

“Better little than too little.” Ask for ideas from the class. This proverb says if we only have a little bit of money, we need to use it wisely.

“You cannot name a child that is not born” Ask for ideas from the class. This proverb says you cannot plan for something that you don’t have. So we can’t spend money that we don’t already have, or promise to give people money that we don’t have.

Great work today everyone! I hope that today we had a chance to think about how we use our money in responsible ways to ensure that our needs are being met before our wants.

Lesson 6: Managing Income

1. Introduction Now that we have explored how to budget, let’s take a look at our income. “Income” means the money we have to budget and spend in the first place.

Ask the class:

  • How many of you have any income, or some way of making money?
  • How many of you have family members who have an income or stipend?
  • What kind of work do you or your family do?

Thanks everyone for their answers. Our proverbs for today are:

“A single bracelet does not jingle.” “A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn.”

Think about them and we’ll come back to them.

2. Activity: FizzBuzz Since today we are going to be working with numbers, let’s play a game with them. I want us to count to 30 as a group, going in a circle, but for each number that divides by 3 — like 3, 6 and 9, I want you to say FIZZ! And for every number that divides by 5 — like 5, 10 and 5— I want you to say BUZZ! For some numbers — like 15, which are divided by 3 AND 5 — you will have to say FIZZBUZZ!

Let’s see if we can do it. Lead the group in the activity.

3. Adding Sources of Income Now let’s go back to income. Usually there is more than 1 person in a family that has an income source. So before we begin to decide what our families spend their money on, we have to add up the total amount of income everyone is bringing in, so we know how much money we have to spend.

Let’s add up the income for an example family: Write these numbers on the blackboard or flipchart so everyone can see them.

  • Momma makes 500 MWK a month selling potatoes.
  • Papa makes 2000 MWK a month as a stipend
  • Zahra makes 300 MWK selling clothes in the market
  • Adil makes 0 MWK because he is still in school.

Ask the class how much the family makes (the answer is 2800). Let’s now do another example in pairs.

Write the numbers up again.

  • Momma makes 1700 MWK selling phones in the market
  • Papa makes 2000 MWK selling soap
  • Abdul makes 400 MWK
  • Bilal makes 800 MWK

Let the class work in pairs to add up the family’s income, then ask them for answers (4900 MWK).

4. Budgeting our Total Income Now we are going to take things a step further by not only adding up a family’s income, but also budgeting what they can spend it on. Let’s do this activity in pairs.

First, let’s work out how much the family makes: Write the numbers up.

  • Momma makes 2350 MWK
  • Papa makes 1300 MWK
  • Yonas makes 400 MWK
  • Liya makes 1400 MWK
  • Kamali and Ife don’t make anything because they are both still babies.

In your pairs, please work out the total the family makes. Ask some pairs for the answer (5450 MWK)

Now let’s make a budget for this 5450 MWK. For a month, the family have the following needs:

Write the numbers up.

  • Baby formula — 1300 MWK
  • Food — 2500 MWK
  • School fees — 500 MWK
  • Diapers — 400 MWK
  • Soap — 200 MWK

Ask the participants:

  • Are the family able to make enough money to cover their needs?
  • Do they have any money left for wants?
  • How much money do they have left?
  • What should they do with the money they have left?

5. Meaning of the Proverb Thanks everyone for today’s session. Now let’s look at the proverbs:

“A single bracelet does not jingle.” “A single stick may smoke, but it will not burn.”

Ask for ideas from the class about what these proverbs mean. These proverbs mean: we are more successful when we pool our incomes or work together towards a common goal. A single income — like a single bracelet or a single stick— can only do a little. But many incomes together can do a lot more.

Module 4: Understanding Different Cultures

Promoting peacebuilding and intercultural competency.

Lessons

Lesson 1: What Is Culture?

1. Introduction In this lesson we will think about what culture is, and we will understand how it can be so different across the world.

First off what does “culture” mean to you? Write the ideas down. Is there a theme developing? Can the class agree on one single definition?

2. Discussion: Cultural Differences Now let’s think about the cultural differences between us. How do our different cultures approach these big stages in life?

  • Babies being born
  • Growing up from childhood to adulthood
  • Getting married
  • Becoming a parent
  • The passing of a loved one

Lead the class in discussion.

3. Story: Why Do Cultures Become Different? Now I want to tell you a story. This is the story of how cultures become so different. This can be read on its own, or alongside the accompanying slideshow.

Imagine one tribe of people living together. They wander the land, looking for water, food and livestock. They do everything together. They all speak the same language. They all have the same religion. They all look similar.

One day, a group of friends decides to leave the tribe. They convince a few others to go with them. Perhaps there was a disagreement in the tribe. Perhaps the tribe was getting too big and was naturally splitting. Or perhaps the friends just want to wander the Earth. Whatever the reason – they leave.

This new group wanders for years, and finally settle down in a new place. They have children, and eventually their children have children. None of them ever see the old tribe again… But life continues.

Over time, the descendants of new group forget the old tribe. They are their own tribe now, with their own way of life. They talk with different accents, even different words. They eat different food. They have different important places. They even start believing in different things.

One day, hundreds of years later, a person from the new tribe goes on a long walk… …and meets someone from the old tribe. But when they meet, they are strangers. They are dressed differently. They speak different languages. They believe in different things. They even look different… But they are still human beings, with the same needs, feelings and dreams.

Imagine tribes splitting again and again, hundreds and hundreds of times over thousands and thousands of years. That is how all humans and their cultures came to be so different.

Can anyone think of any real-life examples of this story? 2. The Story of All People: Human origins (science vs stories). 3. Hunting, Herding, Farming, Cities: Life in rural vs city areas. 4. Cultures in East Africa: Looking at specific regional cultures and Colonialism. 5. Positive Lessons from our Cultures: Appreciating heritage. 6. Celebrating Our Cultures: Participant performances.

Module 5: What’s My Worth? (Wellbeing)

Complementing technical skills with strengthened self-esteem.

Lessons

  1. Mapping my Relationships: Healthy vs Unhealthy relationships.
  2. Reflecting on Relationships: Identifying violence, abuse, and SGBV response.
  3. Dealing with Pressure: Peer pressure and partner pressure.
  4. What are My Boundaries?: Gender roles and cultural influences.
  5. Our Self-Worth: Creating a Vision Board.

Module 6: Nutrition and Family Wellbeing

Supporting better physical and mental health.

Lessons

  1. What is Good Health?: Types of health and factors affecting it.
  2. Defining and Understanding Nutrition: Macros (Carbs, Proteins, Fats), Micros, and Water.
  3. Prevention of Disease: Causes, symptoms, and planning balanced diets.
  4. Family Wellbeing: Parents and children dynamics.
  5. Positive Communication: Communicating effectively with children.

Module 7: Marketplace Literacy

Giving participants skills to start profitable businesses.

Lessons

  1. Welcome to Marketplace Literacy: Ice breakers and matching products.
  2. What Makes A Business?: Identifying the most important factors.
  3. Products: Evolution of transportation and “good” products.
  4. Value and Value Chains: Adding value and breaking down chains.
  5. Products and Services: Distinguishing between the two.
  6. Customers: Segmentation and attracting customers.
  7. Getting Value for Money: Discussion on spending wisely.
  8. Building a Business (Analysing): Analysing ideas and competition.
  9. Building a Business (Ideas): Developing own business ideas.
  10. Building a Business (Resources): Mapping resources.
  11. Building a Business (Choices): Selecting the final business idea.

Module 8: Gender and Society

Exploring gender bias and providing motivation.

Lessons

  1. Gender: Sex vs Gender, roles construction and evolution.
  2. Gender Gaps & Inequality: Discrimination and its effects on society.
  3. Gender Awareness: “Is it a boy thing or a girl thing?” and gender-sensitive language.
  4. Gender and Empowerment: Asserting women’s positions and preventing violence.
  5. Gender Inclusivity in Technology: Specific focus on tech space.
  6. Mentor Inspiration: Closing inspiration.

Resources

Official Material

Facilitation Notes

This manual is designed as a guide for facilitators. The approach is facilitated, not taught—meaning the goal is to guide participants through active, safe, and positive learning spaces rather than lecturing.

Key Principles:

  • Be open and accepting.
  • Keep confidentiality.
  • Listen to participants.
  • Adapt the curriculum to the group’s needs.