Nurturing Learning Communities in a Time of Crisis

Dear Kind Donors and Supporters,

We would like to express our deep gratitude for your valuable contributions to our project, “Nurturing Learning Communities in a Time of Crisis,” on GlobalGiving. Your generous donations have enabled us to provide support to promising young adults who have gone on to play important roles in running our programs.

With our team of outstanding young leaders trained under ALPS (Apprentice Leaders Program in Sustainability), we completed two seasons of a training for Myanmar teachers who were forcibly displaced toa Thai-Myanmar border town. These trainings were much appreciated and life-transforming for many. We planned for a third season this year, but we lost a large portion of the funds slated for this program under the current US administration’s slashing of humanitarian aid programs. Yet the program has value! Many graduates of our SENS and Myanmar Teacher programs are doing extraordinary work teaching the children of displaced and migrant Myanmar families, while also fashioning the foundation for a new democratic and student-centered educational system for Myanmar. And they are doing this good work under very difficult conditions. But having lost funds, we need your help more than ever to continue our support for this network of Myanmar teacher communities living in exile.

Here are some updates on our work of building connections and growing learning communities among our alumni:

1. One student asked our Director (Ted) to lead an online class on social issues as a follow-up to our main three-month SENS program. In the 7-session class over as many weeks, we read five chapters of a book by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison called Invisible Doctrine, about the neoliberal order that now dominates our global economy, and what this has meant. During the class, we also had listening sessions, both privately in breakout rooms and more informally in updates in the online space. We could see how much students enjoyed being together, even though it was an online space.
2. We think it's important (for everyone) to have someone in their life who knows how to listen with respect and genuine appreciation. And it's equally important to be able to provide that kind of attention to others. This year, we were struck by how many of our students and work team members embraced this practice wholeheartedly and took the initiative to set up listening sessions with others, either one-on-one or in small groups.
3. We have also revived a program we started in 2020 when finances were low and security issues were important for some of our students. This program we call 3OM, or One-On-One Mentoring. We have already started with our first students. With enough support from you and others, we may be able to offer this kind of mentoring to more of our excellent young teachers of English and other subjects. We emphasize these sessions as not only about developing English skills but also about building an enjoyable and supportive relationship with another person. Such one-on-one relationships are at the heart of the vibrant network of learning communities we are cultivating one day at a time.

We would be glad if you could share this report and/or talk about our work with your friends and family!

A deep thank you on behalf of our entire community of dedicated young teachers and world-changers,

Drafted by Au and edited by Ted Mayer