Rotary Club Meeting

On Monday, GVI's Thailand Country Director was invited to come speak at the weekly meeting for Ao Luk's local Rotary International Chapter. Charin Klaewtanong, director of the Ao Luk Non-Formal Education Center and GVI Thailand's project partners, is a member of the Ao Luk Rotary Club. He requested that a representative from GVI come to speak about GVI's work in the Ao Luk Community and lead an activity to demonstrate GVI's student-centered TEFL teaching techniques.

Escorted by Teaching Children volunteer, Mim, the two GVI representatives joined the group for a nice dinner of noodles with spicy curry and fried chicken. After an hour or so of mingling and socializing, the meeting began. Guests were introduced as well as the rotary members themselves. The mayor gave a speech about the Rotary Club's work in Ao Luk. And then it was time for GVI to take over the show.

Country Director, Jill, gave a speech highlighting GVI's work in Ao Luk over the last nearly 2 years. Topics covered included GVI's overall mission statement, the TEFL training program, the free English classes for the Ao Luk community (in which advertisements were handed out), the Ao Luk Village Project, and the newest project, Teaching Children in Thailand.

As a final activity, everyone participated in a mingling, "Find somebody who..." activity. They received a list of statements such as 'has been to Vietnam', 'can play guitar' and 'is married'. Participants asked each other questions to identify people who could answer yes to the questions and wrote their name on the sheet. The activity provided everyone with plenty of things to discuss and opportunities to use the English language in a laid back environment.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the experience and the opportunity allowed GVI to encourage more new students to come study English next term!

Rotary Club Meeting