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Keyboards for Kids,
and other community service programs |
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plugging Bintan's schools in the 21st century |
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|
Keyboards for Kids,
and other community service programs |
|
plugging Bintan's schools in the 21st century |
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| Schools and companies are strongly encouraged to take part in community involvement projects, which make a lasting and sustainable change to the island. | These efforts bring joy and fulfillment to all participants, and open everyone's eyes to our shared destiny and potential to work together - get ready for a party! |
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| Many Singapore-based schools elect to visit one of Bintan's 200+ schools and deliver a sports facility, such as a basketball field: we put up the boards, you bring two rings and a couple of basketballs. Upon arrival, screw on the two rings and have your first game! Of course the Singapore side will win ... so head for the local bumpy soccer field and see fortunes reversed! | Many other possibilities exist: we have had other sports exchanges and cultural exchanges (our kids and theirs sharing their experiences of school and life in our countries). You could help paint the school, deliver supplies (posters, Singapore school stationery, educational books), or bring second hand cloths and toys which are received with howls of joy, prompting deep reflection with our students. |
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Our community effort started back in 2000, with the Keyboards for Kids project, developed together
with the Singapore American School. This project has seen Bintan's school system go from 40 old machines
in the year 2000 to over a 1000 modern PCs in 2005. Round up some PCs in your environment and bring them
over to a Bintan school. The effect is enormous: every school earmarked for computer donation gets electricity
from the local government, teachers wil receive IT training, and internet will be provided if feasible.
Additionally, the local authorities wish to make sure that during a repeat visit things look better,
and thus swing into gear to upgrade the entire school! In other words, one such visit of your school has a
snowball effect and makes for a lasting and sustainable change.
Some Singaporean schools, for instance Temasek Polytechnic, ACS(I), and Tanjung Katong Girls school have taken up even more sustained programs lasting up to two weeks, involving the rebuilding of play grounds, the rebuilding of entire class rooms, and the installation of water purification and health programs in remote villages. Such longer stays are often combined with home-stays with local families (which Loola subsidizes). Such stays are not for the faint-hearted, as conditions are what one should expect in a friendly but poor community. But as the Temasek Polytechnic students said: "the first night I felt like crying, the second night was OK, and the third night everyone, including my host family, was crying we had to leave!" |
Combining the desire to bring true development to Bintan while providing a first-rate learning
experience for Singapore-based students, we have now embarked on the
Bintan School Library project. Primary schools in particular do not have any books,
nor educational posters on the wall - see the photographs on this page to get the idea.
So the idea is that your students could now resolve to donate an entire library to a school! The simplest
way to go about this is to task
each student before the trip with finding 10 children books, games, or (educational) VCD's,
both in English and Malay language. Additionally, your students could, for instance: help making
the book shelves; help painting and decorating the library (corner); help designing a library
check-in/out system adapted to the local constraints; and read the children from the new books, and
explain and play the new games with them!
We encourage all our school guests to consider, eventually, after running a number of successful trips, to 'adopt' a local school: just keep coming back to the same school, follow up with internet if possible during the year and consider inviting a class over to Singapore on an exchange program! The Bintan authorities, on their part, have promised to provide free passports for students who are invited to come to Singapore. Please help making this dream a reality for Bintan's kids! |
