My partner %26amp; I would like to volunteer in Laos in Jan 09 for 2 wks. Has anyone heard of this agency or volunteered with it? We would like to get some feedback before committing. Thks.
Volunteering with Open Minds Projects
I have never heard of them. The link to their homepage doesn%26#39;t work, either. Under what criteria do they accept volunteer workers? Have you been able to find out any information?
I have taught voluntarily for the Sunshine School in Vientiane, and I also know of the reputable organization Big Brother Mouse, which produces and distributes books for children. They are always looking for volunteers. Here is the link
http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/
Cheers!
Volunteering with Open Minds Projects
I have volunteered with this group before, it was the best experience of my life! I volunteered with them for 6 weeks last winter teaching English. I went with two other girls from my college. We spent 3 weeks on the island of Koh Chang, and then 3 weeks in Krabi.
I think any experience would have been incredible, but going with Openminds Projects made it extra amazing. They are a very small group, but that made it much more personable and special. We lived on our volunteer sites, becoming friends with and getting to know the people we worked with on an incredible level. They always helped us whenever we encountered a problem (which was almost never) and checked in often to make sure we were ok.
I really enjoyed this group, that being said, their MO is pretty hands-off. We met our contact Mui at the airport (skipped the orientation), she took us to our site, got us introduced and settled in to our room, and then left until the end of the week. We could call her if we needed anything, but otherwise we pretty much just immediately started integrating ourselves into the community and with the people we were teaching. At both sites, the people we were teaching English to were the people who fed us, gave us rides around, and otherwise took care of us. I loved it, but make sure you research a bunch of groups to decide which one is best for you!
Thks for your feedback. We did end up signing up with Open Minds about 3 wks ago but it%26#39;s reassuring to hear that you had a good experience. This will be our first time overseas volunteering and we%26#39;re really looking forward to it. We will be staying in a rural village in Laos and will be teaching English to the local villagers and guides. Were you teaching English to kids or adults? It was also very useful to know that it was pretty hands off as far as training.....perhaps I%26#39;ll do a little teaching research before we go!
Thks again!
Try and find out what age groups you will be working with and what the standard of English is. Then you will perhaps be able to bring some resources with you. This will help you greatly in planning what you are going to do and how to do it, otherwise you will probably be flying by the seat of your pants.
If you send me a pm I will be able to help you in telling you what suitable resources you can purchase here. There are some decent Laos-English books available at Talat Sao eg.
I volunteered with them in Thailand, but I%26#39;m sure the program is the same. We taught at a hospital for the first three weeks, teaching the staff who worked there English, helping to translate when tourists would come in, and helping out with some administrative tasks. We lead lessons in a laid-back, fairly causal setting, but as the students were adults and really wanting to learn english for their livelihood, I felt like we really helped some of them.
The second site we worked at was an elementary school where we led hour or so long lessons in a traditional classroom setting. It was really fun, and the kids brighten up your day in an incredible way, but the they are so used to just reciting information, sometimes it was a little strange, or felt like we were not really getting through to them.
In both places it was mostly up to us to decide what to teach and how. We didn%26#39;t realize this until we got there so we weren%26#39;t very well prepared, but we quickly figured it out and made some decent lesson plans to go off of. I would definately at least look at some lesson ideas or language instruction techniques. It can be a little challenging when the students (and even the teachers!) speak little to no English, but there are ways around it. I%26#39;m actually persuing my teaching credential now and I would recommend looking into techniques used for teaching English Language Learns (ELLs). I think we found out what groups (ages, location, etc) we would be working with when it got closer to our trip. Good Luck! And try to visit Thailand if you get the chance! (you usually only work Monday-Friday)
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