By Jorn Dix | International Volunteer
The last three months were quite busy at DEPDC's Community Learning Center (CLC). The CLC organized a one month special English workshop focusing on 'English for Social Workers' for the participants of the "Social Workers Training Program for an At-risk Group of Women and Children in The Shan State” A new Burmese language course was set up the two English language courses ran as before, with a short break.
Between 15th May and 13th June 2015 DEPDC, in cooperation with Alliance Anti-Trafic, organized a one month social worker training program for people from The Shan State in Myanmar. The young people participating in the workshop came from many different walks of life, from farmers, to monks, to university students. One part of the program was an English language course focusing on English for Social Workers. This part of the program was organized by the CLC and taught by three teachers at the same time.
The big challenge in this course was the very different levels of English proficiency of the program participants, reaching from very basic English to an advanced intermediate level. The fact that we had three teachers to teach a group of 11 people made it possible to organize the classes in a way that everybody had a chance to learn, and to improve upon their skills at a pace which suited them and their own abilities, enabling the participants to make good progress during the one month course.
The second big news from DEPDC's CLC is that we managed to set up a new Burmese language course for pupils. The new course takes place every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm, and is taught by our Burmese teacher, Ms. Kwanmai Lasang, who also teaches beginner English CLC classes.
These classes give children from the villages around DEPDC a chance to learn Burmese, which is becoming increasingly important as the trade across the Thai-Myanmar border is increasing and is expected to boom after the introduction of the 'ASEAN Economic Community' in the near future. Mae Sai as one of the main border crossings between Thailand and Myanmar will be one of the major trade hubs and having the ability to speak and write Burmese might be an advantage in the labor market.
All of DEPDC's staff, volunteers, and students would like to thank our generous donors for their support. Without your support DEPDC's work in furthering the education of our students would be impossible. Thank you!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
