Successful Christmas Party
The Chrismas Party was held at the Talent Center and the center was packed with people. Most of the children attended the party and also many parents joined in. Total there were about 200 people attending the celebration.
Sajida had been asking the students for their wishes for a christmas present and went around buying small presents like sweaters, toys, carments and jewellery. Since last year we gave shoes and sweaters for the Talent center children, this year we offered this gift to Smile and Joy center children and also to the Talent center children who had started after the celebration. And of course we didn’t want to forget about the Talent center children either so Sajida bought them small gifts like candies The spirit and the joy of the celebration and receiving these small, but important gifts can be seen from the faces of the children.
After the gifts we offered everyone a good Christmas meal including rice, chicken and some vegetables. We had hired a cook to prepare the dinner and unlike last year, this time we had reserved enough food for everyone.
Hope you enjoy our small presentation of the celebrations.
Thank you for the year 2018
The year 2018 was successful in many ways. We got many new students with the help of the carry van, we rented more space for the Talent center to be used for the new sewing center and we added many new ways how the students can learn at the centers. In 2018 we started the center sponsorship project where our students can become personal ambassadors to our supporters and report their interests.
Our philosophy has reamined intact and our volunteers have fully embrased it. We support our students to find their own interest and we help them learn what they are interested in learning. This has allowed a very loving and caring environment where students support each other and feel safe. Their learning is consistent and comprehensive.
Thank you to our many supporters who have found this project worth supporting. Without you this would be just a dream.
Plans for Year 2019
In our last meeting we went through the plans for the coming year 2019. Here are the main goals we are aiming to accomplish during 2019.
Sewing Center for parents and older students
- We have already rented a space at the Talent center for this purpose. We will be buying eight sewing machines to allow both the students and their parents to learn with the machines and earn a small extra income. This will also add to the aim for the centers to be self-sustained.
Support for the volunteers’ studies
- Our volunteers are working hard and selflessly to support the learning of the children. We want to support them by aiding them in their expenses for their own studies.
One or two more laptop computers for the Joy center
- We currently have only two laptop computers at the Joy center. The aim is to have at least four.
One or two more laptop computer to the Talent center
- We have had new students come to the Talent center so we need some more computers to allow more efficient use of the time at the centers.
Question Software
- Software to give meaningful questions to work on for the children. The idea is to use create sets of questions which are meaningful to the children but which will also guide them forward in their studies and help them learn about things they might not otherwise run into. It would be like a virtual library of ideas set in question form.
Additional five cheap mini-computers like Raspberry Pi for each center.
- We will be experimenting with this option in the near future and if it works, then we will add enough of these to reach ten computers (including the laptops) for each center.
Table Tennis tables
- We have been planning this idea for some time but so far have lacked the funds. We are hoping to find funding this year and to allow this kind of fun sport for the students.
Two park visits
- The children always ask for the possibility to visit the park. We have so far been able to organize two trips to the park and we’re hoping to be able to do this twice a year.
Christmas Celebration
- The year will end with the great Christmas Celebration and this year we will start our fund raising much earlier to cover the costs.
X-Box for Talent and Smile centers
- We have been experimenting with this at the Joy center and our experiences have shown that the gaming consoles can be used as good and efficient learning tools. The games include lots of English language which motivates and helps the students in their language learning. In addition they learn eye-hand coordination, game mechanics, logic, problem solving and technical skills.
Tabletop games, learning games
- When the children are not working on the computers, we offer them other kinds of learning tools and equipment. Games are a fund and efficient way to learn new things.
Printer for Talent and Smile centers
- We have had one printer mostly at the Joy center and it has shown to be a good tool for many kinds of activities where the children can print some work sheets, coloring tasks and texts to transfer the virtual information into a tangible sheet of paper.
Paper, pencils and colors
- Art is an essential part of our centers and we want to offer quality tools for the children to express themselves and practice arts in different forms.
Small library of books
- So far we have mostly concentrated on the use of the computers in learning, but we want to bring more diversity to our centers and build a small library to each center consisting of inspiring science and story books for children.