Chinthe Fund – Year is Off to a Good Start
ISY’s service learning groups have been busy over the last few weeks. First, ISY faculty visited two of our Chinthe Fund partners. Second, ISY staff and students ran a clinic at Care to the Least Center (CLC). Third, we have installed solar panels at Kalitaw school.
The purpose of the faculty visits to our Chinthe Fund partners was to give teachers an opportunity to find out more about service learning in general, and these partner organizations in particular. Many of ISY’s teachers are supervisors of service learning groups, so they will be able to apply knowledge from these trips to the goals and activities of their own service learning groups.
At Kalitaw school, ISY faculty engaged in activities with the children and learned about the day-to-day life of the students and teachers there. At the Yangon Animal Shelter (YAS), ISY teachers learned about animal welfare issues and had fun playing with the dogs.
Thanks to a generous donation of multivitamins and medicines from an ISY community member, ISY’s medical team, Dr Aye Myat Myat Mon and nurse Siddharta Nixon, ran a clinic at Care to the Least Center (CLC). The clinic involved several stations at which children from CLC were checked by the medical team. ISY students operated some of the stations, for example checking names and weighing the children. Service learning gives ISY students opportunities to learn about real-world issues and then apply that knowledge to address an authentic need. This clinic is an excellent example of meaningful service learning, and it will become a regular event for the Chinthe Fund service learning group.
Installation of solar panels at Kalitaw school was made possible thanks to donations from the ISY community to the Chinthe Fund. In May, ISY students visited Kalitaw school to conduct a needs assessment. The information gained from these interviews was used to formulate a plan for installation. Now, the teachers and students at the school will have the benefit of lights in the classroom, which will improve learning opportunities, and in the corridors, which will make the campus safer. In addition, the classrooms will now be able to operate electric fans – Kalitaw school does not have air conditioners so these fans will provide welcome relief.
These projects are examples of ISY fulfilling its Mission of being “a community of compassionate global citizens”, its Vision of developing “learners who will be a force for positive change”, as well as aligning with our strategic theme of sustainability.
Nick Sturmey
Service Learning Coordinator
The International School Yangon
20 Shwe Taungyar Street
Bahan Township
Yangon, Myanmar
+95 (0) 9 880 441 040