Sunday, November 22, 2009

The Smile Orphanage

Very close to our work place there is an orphanage with approximately 16 children ranging in age 5 – 19 years of age. These children are very small in appearance and quite immature by western standards.

The NGO running this orphanage is Japanese and most of the funding comes from Japan. Although there is funding in place the operation is still quite basic and there are many areas that require improvement.

We arrived in our Tuk Tuk early in the morning. Our Tuk Tuk was filled with shoes, hair ribbons, toys, soccer ball and beautiful dressed dolls. A friend of Jim and Joanne Stewart (Anne Sargent) made 11 beautiful dolls which we distributed here at this orphanage.

The focus of our visit was to assess the needs of this orphanage however we found the children to be delightful and receptive to our teaching efforts. They were very interested in speaking English with us. We taught them English words. We used many methods such as board work, verbal demonstrations, songs and games.

The time went quickly but before we left we took the eldest boy with us to the local market and with his assistance we purchased a large amount of fruit for a very little amount of money. This was something that pleased the children especially having some apples. We were able to supply them with pineapple, bananas, watermelon, lichee fruit and of course the apples. It seems that apples are a specialty here.

Over the next two weeks that we are here, a number of our group will visit this orphanage to assist the children with their English lessons. Our greatest assets to these children is our ability to help them with their pronunciation.

This was a very special day for us.

SUBMITTED BY; Diane Allen, Joyce Westlake, Joanne Stewart














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