Scholarships and Sponsorships for Laos Students

Dear supporter, 

Fishponds and floorboards were the order of the day for our construction volunteers during July 2013!

The School for the Deaf requested that GVI assist several of its students to build an extra fish pond 5m x 3m. GVI was thrilled to offer this unique experience of working alongside Lao students who have deafness to our 2 British female construction volunteers. 

The School for the Deaf in Luang Prabang teaches its students both the standard Secondary School Curriculum and a life skills program. It aims to ensure that its students are both educated and trained in practical skills before they return to their villages at the end of their period of time with the School. The students raise several species of fish which serve as food for them and they hope to eventually be able to sell mature fish as an income earner for the many expenses the school incurs.The second construction project was less glamorous but necessary and long overdue. A skilled volunteer undertook the challenging job of repairing and replacing broken floor boards in the classrooms and administration room of the Primary School for Novices at Wat Mano.

This completed job now means that the Novices’ or Teachers’ feet aren’t in danger of slipping through the holes! Thank you for supporting this project

Many thanks

Sophie Birkett

Links:

• http://www.gvi.org

The 2012-2013 school year has come to an end at Wat Mano Primary School. Since September we have taught English to 26 young novice monks and 1 lay student “Mr. Johnny”. The students began the year with no prior English language knowledge but have as much eagerness to learn as we see in all of our other temple schools. These students are aged 10 to 14 years old and come from several temples throughout Luang Prabang.

This past year the students were lucky enough to have two renovated classrooms thanks to a former GVI construction volunteer. Shiny new whiteboards, enough textbooks to go around, 8 computers along with educational activities, brand new desks and benches make for happy teaching volunteers and happy students. On Mondays the students work on English based computer activities supervised by our Lao staff Mr. Sipheng. Mondays through Fridays, Mr. Sipheng, Molly, a GVI staff member and 4 volunteers teach English in the new classrooms.

The last day at Wat Mano was activity day so the novices practiced prepositions such as “in, on and under” with a wooden train set donated by a former volunteer. The novices and Lao teacher went wild over their first time playing with a train set. After the activities were finished Molly thanked the students for their hard work while the volunteers handed out soy milks to everyone. Special jelly drinks were given to the students who had completed their homework and attended class every day. We are very proud of our young novices at Wat Mano Primary School and we are already looking forward to returning to teach after the summer holiday.

Thank you again for supporting this project. Did you know about GlobalGiving's Bonus Day? Today, on June 12th 2013 from 9am EST till funds run out, GlobalGiving will be matching all donations to this project at 50%. Please consider sharing our story and helping us to make an additional difference today. 

All the best

Sophie Birkett

GVI Charitable Trust manager

Links:

• GVI Charitable Trust website
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