English Teaching and Friendship

Project Context

Since 2009 our team in the Silk Road Area has run a Language Centre that provides passionate and professional English teaching to students and young adults. Over the last 12 months it has expanded into teaching K language adult literacy classes as well to address key education needs in the community and help tackle illiteracy.

The globalisation of the world has created a key education need in rural Silk Road Area communities where K people are now expected to speak English for better employment opportunities. Lessons for both basic K language literacy through to advanced English are so highly sought after that there are long waiting lists for students.

Project Specifics

Our team and the local staff of the Language Centre, offer subsidised beginner, conversational and advanced academic English classes, K language literacy classes and homework clubs. With more than 140 students attending these classes across the week, and even more on the waiting list, the centre is thriving and rapidly growing!

The Language Centre now employs three local teachers, some who have been a part of the staff since 2019. Our team members have been building relationships with these staff and weekly team meetings often focus on the motivation to see lives transformed through these practical lessons, offering opportunities that many in this rural area have never been able to access before.

Project Outcomes

This project has a practical and relational impact on the local K community. It supports children and youth who have been working hard to learn English, offering access to families that couldn’t afford it without the subsidised lessons and adults who have never had the opportunity before now! It also opens the opportunity for our team to connect with families in the community, grow in trust and build meaningful relationships.

Many past students of the Language Centre remember their Australian teachers with fondness and some have even gone on to become English teachers in their own local village schools.

Support for this project will go towards the local teacher’s salaries, subsidies for classes, student textbooks and resources, as well as utilities and maintenance. The team recently completed some renovations and is building a new classroom to meet the growing need.