Our Rainbow Flower is a training tool that is used in workshops focused on children’s participation in health education. The tool contains seven concepts which distinguishes a participatory model from a ‘traditional health education model’. It is specially designed to be used with children, defined here as  children under 10 years and young adolescents between 10 and 14 years.

These 7 concepts are:

1. The roles of the children – ROLES
2. The three stages of a project – WHEELS
3. The skills that children will develop – SKILLS
4. The words that guide the spirit with which the activities will be done – WORDS
5. The places that the learning and sharing will happen – PLACES
6. The values that are at the heart of this type of activity – VALUES
7. The connections that ensure healthy habits are effective and long-lasting – CONNECTIONS

Within each if these 7 concepts, there are three key ideas to remember:

1. That in this work children dance between 3 ROLES of learner, leader and activists.
2. That the 3 learning WHEELS include: understanding, taking action and reflecting on what has been done.
3. That children develop and improve the 3 key SKILLS of listening, speaking and planning.
4. That all activities are important, relevant and fun!
5. That the activities move from PLACES where smaller groups of children learn like a club or a class and to larger groups such as entire schools, and then on to the home and community. The activities will therefore reach  ALL children.
6. That all involved VALUE working together with originality and creativity with a sense of community and with clarity of purpose and shared understanding.
7. That it’s not enough for children just to know something! Real and lasting changes happen when connections are made between what they know – head what they do – body and what we feel – heart.