On Day three of the Hotline Refresher and Training focus was on documentation, data collection tools and discussing the challenges. Inna Hudaya from Samsara facilitated the session, her presentation ‘The Power of Data’ helped the participants to understand the importance of documentation and data collection, according to Inna documentation is a way to improve our work and increases recognition and credibility of the work we do, while data is important for potential research it needs to protect the confidentiality of the client. Inna also explained in detail the various methods and tools that can be used for documentation and evaluation. This session provided the participants with technical knowledge to improve their work with limited resources; it helped them understand how to create a simple and secure way of tracking clients, collecting, maintaining, and analyzing data.

The next session was experience sharing by hotline counselors from Samsara– Indonesia, Tamtang – Thailand, ANMA– Uganda. This was followed by presentations by the new hotlines- Ask Us– Sri Lanka, Ask Mads– Philippines and Marzi– India, the discussion focused on sharing strategies and overcoming potential challenges of new hotlines.

The last session was an in-depth discussion and brainstorming on strategies to move forward; participants were asked to think about obstacles, strategies for overcoming and the kind of collaboration needed from the group and other potential partners. The three-day workshop was an excellent experience for the participants and helped them to connect and learn from each other’s work, the workshop ended with some concrete action plans and ideas to move forward. Participants stressed the need for a common experience-sharing platform.