Boomers Abroad

Description

Be part of a humble organization and group of people to provide children, who would otherwise be denied, with free basic primary education. The BCAS learning centres in the remotest areas of Sabah, Borneo Malaysia, are providing basic education for over 8,000 stateless children who do not have access to government run education. With no primary education these children would most likely become child laborers, drug miss-users and outcasts of society at the Palm Oil plantations they live on. Volunteer with Ecoteer on the Borneo Teach English volunteer program and touch the lives of these wonderful children giving them a chance to realize their dreams.

Term Dates 2012:
* 2nd Jan til 9th March
* 19th March til 25th May
* 11th June til 17th Aug
* 20th Aug til 9th Nov

Costs

All volunteers must become Ecoteer Responsible Travel members at a cost of GBP55 for lifetime - if you are already an Ecoteer member you can upgrade to this membership level.

Free - If you have teaching qualifications ie TEFL

RM300 per week - If you have no teaching qualifications

Volunteer Activities

Teaching
School starts at 8am and finishes at midday. You will be responsible teaching a class of upto 30 students at anyone time. The children have text books but often they are hand-me-downs and have the answers in. Therefore it is important that you look at the books and then do something similar but not the same. For example if you have a comprehension text ask the children different questions from the ones in the text books.

The best way to teach the children is to make the lessons as interactive as possible. Competitions and songs with actions are always a firm favourite with the children. You do have access to the internet and basic stationary to help you prepare for each of the sessions.

Another good thing to do is for you to teach the children something that is educational and interests you. For example one volunteer in 2011 taught the children about the oceans as she loved to dived. She had photos of herself diving etc which she showed to the children.

Warning

Sometimes due to low teacher numbers you may be expected to teach a whole morning on your own, ie english, maths and art to the kids with no teacher. Please be warned.

Informal Afternoon activities

The afternoon activities were introduced in January 2011 and have been a great success. The children always ask where are we meeting you at 3pm?. We only do this at one of the schools in the estate due to the close proximity to your accommodation at Mr Chees home. The children love doing fun activities like sports, singing, arts and crafts and even reading. The afternoon sessions increase the contact time between you and the children which will not only help them to become more confident in English language but will also give them something to do during the afternoon, it is common for children as young as 3 to be left at home alone or taken to work on the plantation.

Possible weekend excursion

Borneo and in particular Sabah is blessed with several natural wonders which can only be seen on these shores. Within a 3 hour drive nearly all of these natural wonders can be seen. You can stay in lodges at Sukau or Tabin and if you are lucky enough you may see your cousins the orang utan swinging through the trees. However If you dont get to see one in the wild you can always go to the world famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre just a 30min drive away from the Sukau Junction. In the reserves you can also see two more endemic species the official third species of elephant (the Borneo Pgymy Elephant) and the oddest looking monkey of all, the large-nosed proboscis monkey.