British International School is very strong on community and social responsibility. Community is one of the strands of the curriculum, and its about helping and supporting others, helping and supporting local schools, as in schools that run outside the government umbrella, and orphanages etc. Yesterday our TX Campus staff went to a school / orphanage to get a better understanding of their role and how we with our classes can support them in some way.
There are many many orphanages around this city, or schools that run basically on a voluntarily basis taking in children who have been abandoned, who has HIV Aides, who are disabled in any way, physically and mentally or even schools for young Mums.
Binh Trieu is one such "school" set up by the Japanese and then gifted to the catholic church for the nuns to run. As the centre is under the umbrella of the nuns the government can't infiltrate and take additional funds etc, not that there is any spare. To be honest the place is very sparse. Binh Trieu is an orphanage that has 26 children in its care, ranging up to one girl who was 17. It is also a school that provides an education for day students, Year 1 - 5 children, about 30 - 35 children per class. They have 5 classes in the morning, and extend that to 7 classes in the afternoon, so you are either a morning or an afternoon student. The parents of the students are very poor and can not afford any type of schooling, hence the reason they are here. This place runs solely on donations, heaps of good will, volunteers and the charisma of a dynamic nun Sister Hanah. The school complex also provides an education centre for young parents, mainly young Mums.
We went down and played co-operate type games, and took along dough and lego for the orphanage students to play with as a way of thinking how our very rich kids could see another world in this city. The children at BIS are basically very well off. Travel to school in an expensive car with a driver, nanny, travel in business class, even for short trips to Thailand, flown to another city for a birthday buffet, personal iPads with 3 G connections etc etc
Sparse would definitely be a word to sum up the site, impoverished, and yet the children were very healthy and happy. The classrooms were very small, half the size of my bedroom. Take a look at the bunk beds with a sleeping mat. Chalk black board and no obvious sign of text books, a library and resources. Some additional children arrived on push bikes from the area to join the after school activities and then biked away home. Everyone is welcome. A very humbling experience.
Interesting to note we played a game where we passed a rubber band from one person down a team line to the next on chop sticks. If you dropped the rubber band the team had to start again. NO one uttered any ohs or abused the dropper of the rubber band. They absolutely LOVED participating, and took a great deal of care with the younger children.
British International School is very strong on community and social responsibility. Community is one of the strands of the curriculum, and its about helping and supporting others, helping and supporting local schools, as in schools that run outside the government umbrella, and orphanages etc. Yesterday our TX Campus staff went to a school / orphanage to get a better understanding of their role and how we with our classes can support them in some way.
There are many many orphanages around this city, or schools that run basically on a voluntarily basis taking in children who have been abandoned, who has HIV Aides, who are disabled in any way, physically and mentally or even schools for young Mums.
Binh Trieu is one such "school" set up by the Japanese and then gifted to the catholic church for the nuns to run. As the centre is under the umbrella of the nuns the government can't infiltrate and take additional funds etc, not that there is any spare. To be honest the place is very sparse. Binh Trieu is an orphanage that has 26 children in its care, ranging up to one girl who was 17. It is also a school that provides an education for day students, Year 1 - 5 children, about 30 - 35 children per class. They have 5 classes in the morning, and extend that to 7 classes in the afternoon, so you are either a morning or an afternoon student. The parents of the students are very poor and can not afford any type of schooling, hence the reason they are here. This place runs solely on donations, heaps of good will, volunteers and the charisma of a dynamic nun Sister Hanah. The school complex also provides an education centre for young parents, mainly young Mums.
We went down and played co-operate type games, and took along dough and lego for the orphanage students to play with as a way of thinking how our very rich kids could see another world in this city. The children at BIS are basically very well off. Travel to school in an expensive car with a driver, nanny, travel in business class, even for short trips to Thailand, flown to another city for a birthday buffet, personal iPads with 3 G connections etc etc
Sparse would definitely be a word to sum up the site, impoverished, and yet the children were very healthy and happy. The classrooms were very small, half the size of my bedroom. Take a look at the bunk beds with a sleeping mat. Chalk black board and no obvious sign of text books, a library and resources. Some additional children arrived on push bikes from the area to join the after school activities and then biked away home. Everyone is welcome. A very humbling experience.
Interesting to note we played a game where we passed a rubber band from one person down a team line to the next on chop sticks. If you dropped the rubber band the team had to start again. NO one uttered any ohs or abused the dropper of the rubber band. They absolutely LOVED participating, and took a great deal of care with the younger children.
1 comment:
Sobering. Haves v Havenots.
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