Delivering an English Summer Camp in the Philippines
Delivering an english camp to children in the Philippines living below the poverty line was the most rewarding experience of my life. I observed the children’s english language levels improve incrementally throughout the camp and was assured we had contributed to enhancing their future prospects. The English Summer Camp we ran commenced on the 8th of April 2019 and a total of 200 kids attended from 5 different locations, the three out of five locations are situated in a village remote area. We endeavoured to make the lessons as interactive as possible, after all, it was held in the children’s school holiday!
“Our aim was to educate the children in a fun and meaningful way. During summer the kids have a lot of down time, although the children never fail to entertain themselves, educational opportunities are few and brain stimulation is abandoned.”
2 Months Teaching in the Philippines
This program given local children an opportunity to enjoy their 2 month school holiday whilst learning at the same time, allowing them to prepare for the incoming school year. Participants have chance to experience teaching the kids during summer holidays outside the school program, as this gives them a chance to teach whatever they want in ways as interactive and creative as possible. These are the activities we conducted during the summer camp:
- Learning alphabets, numbers, colours and shapes
- Holding basic English conversations
- Singing songs and playing guitar
- Dancing
- Drawing and colouring
For the Teaching program we normally used books, encyclopaedia and other resources such as internet. Participants are free to teach whatever they want but the pupils especially enjoy learning about the volunteer’s home town including their culture, food, dances and language.
This program last for 2 months and on the 7th of June 2019, the last day of this program we gave them school supplies such as note books, papers, pencils, crayons, ball pens, pencil cases, eraser, sharpener and other presents. The donation of equipment was greatly received and set the children up with sufficient supplies to begin school with after the summer holiday!