|
|
Hi everyone! Here is the newsletter from the beautiful island of Greece, Crete. Within the last six months 102 volunteers spread out over seven service programs came here to offer their help. The first two teams (April and May) went into the village schools. Volunteers were split up into small groups and spread out in order to cover the seven schools requested by the host. They taught conversational English to children, ages ranging in age from 4- to 13-years-old --most of the time with a teacher present. A very important bond was made between a volunteer on this program and a young Albanian boy who was having family problems and difficulty in the classroom. She asked the teacher if it would be possible the time she was in the classroom to sit with him and work one on one. The result was that he learned to pay attention, felt loved by someone, and his progress has been amazing since then. This service program is in its second year and the teachers are getting an idea of how the volunteers can serve. As is the Greek hospitality, they tend to think of their volunteers as honored guests! I thank all of you who took part on these two programs for your determination, hard work and dedication. We had five teams this summer at the Saint Marina summer camp starting on the first Monday of the summer holidays. The volunteers were split up into groups and most chose the grades they wished to teach. Grades were from Kindergarten (ages four plus) through all grades until junior high. Their project was teaching conversational English at a summer with some chilldren giving up their summer vacation to translate in the lower classes. All of volunteers did a wonderful job with lesson planning and keeping the children engaged in conversational English using games, word searches, written projects and much more including American soccer, baseball and the electric slide.
The kindergarteners and first graders are now able to ask and answer English pleasantries such as “Good morning, How are you? My name is," etc. with ease and without being shy. Second graders through fourth graders can write much easier and fifth graders through junior high are now very proficient in conversational English. After a very successful summer camp our host made a speech to the county counselors. Here is a small part of what he said. "We must raise our children in a different way, both culturally and philosophically, not as we grew up to only take and not give […]. It is difficult for us to understand that some people want to give without receiving. Through this program the children of our community not only have the chance to improve their conversational English but more important learn about volunteerism and hopefully make our community a better place by volunteering themselves in the future.” So why the need for more volunteers? Quite simply because many more children in the community need help and because the host and community of Gazi feel very proud of their partnership with Global Volunteers and wish it to continue for many years. I would like to share with you all some quotes from a few children who attended the Summer Camp. “How can they speak English if they are not from England?” Kostas, age 6 “Miss Sam, don’t they love us, is that why they keep leaving?” George, age 5 “Where do they live?... America? Is that on another planet?” Christoforos, age 4 “In the beginning I didn’t want to come. Now it is the last day and I don’t want to leave.” Eva, age 9 “When do we sign up for 2009?” Oddyseas, age 14 I personally feel very proud of the achievements we all have made together not only as individual teams but as a group of American/ Canadian citizens who came together, gave their vacation time, their money, their individual experiences of life and their love. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.
|
This year's progress included serving 370 children from the community (200 children attended the camp in 2007). Children already are signing up for 2009 with many willing to travel from outer villages to Saint Marina school for this experience with Global Volunteers. I'd like to mention that Global Volunteers in Greece have been contributing to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Since May, the volunteers have worked toward the UN's educational goal by teaching 1483 kids, providing 3489 hours in classroom teaching plus 3489 hours of lesson prep time. 
|