With the goal of helping needy Asians help themselves, the children and staff of the Goducate Children’s Home joined hands and minds in offering informal English language classes to three communities near the Home. This project was started 3-4 months ago, and the classes were to be held every Thursday and Saturday. However, initially the schedule at the Home was such that the Saturday classes could not be held very regularly. Now, with some adjustment of the time-table at the Home, we have been able to jumpstart the community program again.
The community classes are held in somebody’s house or in the open. The premises are not ideal, but they are very accessible to the children who want to attend the classes. One center is just in front of a quarry but the kids obviously do not mind sitting under the sun and using the ground as their drawing board. We hope to find more suitable premises that we can rent.
English is an important tool for getting on in the modern world, but it is not part of the local school curriculum, hence this opportunity to learn English for free is very attractive. In two of the communities the average attendance is 40-50 children.
