Rotaract Literacy Programme

 

Wanderlust amidst the pages!

Throughout the year, the Rotaract Club has been organizing a literacy programme with Dignity for Children, an organization that provides learning facilities for the underprivileged community. The Sentul-based school helps local and foreign children ranging from toddlers to secondary school students. The 15th of August marked the first time for a new group of volunteers to lead the event. The volunteers were divided into two groups, the kindergarten or pre-school group and the primary school group.

When the volunteers from the pre-school group walked into the school at around 2.p.m., they were immediately greeted with smiles of curious pre-schoolers, excited to meet their new friends. The children enthusiastically said hello and shook the hands of the student volunteers from the Rotaract Club as they made their way into the school. Meanwhile, the primary school group headed upstairs to another section of the school.

Once we had settled in, the first item on the itinerary was to conduct reading circles. Volunteers of both groups sat down with the children and read from large, boldly coloured books while the children listened and asked questions. The process was interactive and spontaneous, and volunteers were free to improvise while reading aloud, making-up stories when children could not understand the advanced vocabulary. The entire purpose of this activity was to strengthen the children’s command of English and increase interest in learning through the direct interaction between the children and the volunteers. Given the great number of students and the small number of permanent teachers at the school, it was clear that the children were ecstatic with the attention and love from the volunteers.

The concept at the centre was based on Montessori principles of self-directed learning. Hence, children were encouraged to choose what they would like to learn. Some children requested the volunteers to play toys with them, such as abacuses, dinosaur figurines, blocks and other educational materials. In the primary school group, some students also asked the volunteers for help with their Mathematics and other schoolwork. However, many children were content to play and learn amongst themselves as the twenty-odd volunteers tried their best to spread their attention between hundreds of students. 

At around 3 p.m., the highlight of the event began: a puppet show put on by the volunteers. The performance involved an interactive song called “Walking in the Jungle” which required the pre-school children to participate and sing along to the lyrics while performing simple actions. The children were overjoyed as they saw puppets of a frog, a lion, a cow and many other animals greet them from behind a hand-made stage that the Rotaract Club had set-up.

Once the performance was over, the children made their way outside for exercise time while the volunteers kept their things and made their way home. Though it was a tiring day for volunteers, making new friends and seeing the looks of happiness on the young children’s’ faces was enough to entice most of the volunteers to take part in next week’s visit. Education is something we often take for granted. Through experiences like this one, we are not only reminded that education is a gift - but that education is a gift best shared. The young Rotaract Club members have shared this gift with these children and in some small way, provided hope for their futures.

 Join them every Friday to take part in this life-changing endeavour!

Written by Christine Kuan
Cambridge A- Levels