ISY Service Learning
Sharing Pages of Joy
The Reading Matters Book Club is a service learning group we can all learn from. This group ticks all the boxes for service learning.
It starts with the Reading Matters team – passionate ISY students from Middle and High School whose goal is to increase access to education for all. Then we have the faculty supervisor, Ms. Feller, who happens to be the school librarian – who knows more about books than her?
The students raised funds at the Family Fun Fair by selling books which you, the ISY community, donated. After some discussion, the students felt that they should donate some books to the Care to the Least Center (CLC) and Kalitaw school, two of our Chinthe Fund partner organizations.
After researching what kind of books were available, the students contacted the teachers at CLC and Kalitaw for more ideas. Then they went to the local book store and bought some books.
The last step was to give the books to the children from CLC and Kalitaw. It just so happened that last weekend the children were at ISY as part of another ISY service learning project – the Clinic Project, which is providing vaccinations for children from CLC and Kalitaw school. It will not surprise you to learn that the books were received with tremendous enthusiasm. The children were very happy.
This project demonstrates that service learning is fun, while engaging with both the ISY community and our partner organizations. This was an excellent opportunity for the Chinthes to learn about real-world issues and address authentic needs.
Ms. Feller reminded us that “Literacy is a foundation for learning across all subjects. Books open up an important pathway to individual education, development and participation in the world.”
10-year-old Su Nway said, “It’s so exciting to see all these lovely books.”
Sayama Daw Cho Wai Lwin, head teacher at Kalitaw school, said, “We have a small library at the school but the children have read the books already. It’s good to have some new books.”
Reading Matters – you matter! Keep up the good work.
The International School Yangon
20 Shwe Taungyar Street
Bahan Township
Yangon, Myanmar
+95 (0) 9 880 441 040