Caritas Village is not
just a cafe or a temporary clinic or a community center.
Caritas Village is a
place where ideas can flourish and people are served. There are not many places
that open their doors to provide a where the community has the liberty to
develop their gifts through service and fill the needs of the community. For a student from Rhodes University, by the name of Anania Woldetensaye,
Caritas Village has provided that space for him.
Through Anania’s interest
in Spanish and the sciences, and future interest in attending medical school, he
first started out as a volunteer at the free clinics every second, third, and
fourth Tuesday of each month as an interpreter. He soon noticed that the
patients did not have the basic English knowledge to explain their symptoms to
the volunteer doctors of the Compassion Neighborhood Clinic, Inc. (CNC) and
wanted to help them be able to have these simple, and private, conversations on
their own.
Anania is starting from
the ground up with his ESL classes; he is creating his own lesson plans and teaching classes himself
every Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30PM and Saturdays from 10:00 to
11:30AM upstairs at the Caritas Village. Since most of his students come from
the CNC nights at Caritas, Anania now there interpreting and passing out ESL
fliers, encouraging people to come and learn basic English skills.
Though the classes started
out being solely health and healthcare focused, with the growing interest of
the students, Anania has also incorporated reading, writing, and other themes of
the student’s interest. This has allowed the students to better communicate in
work and social environments. However, with these topic additions, there have been some hurdles
along the way. One of the main hurdles being understanding as a teacher how to
best serve each student individually since all the students are at different
levels depending on their exposure to the English language.
This is where
you fit in!
As you
know, Caritas is made of volunteers just like Anania who want to serve the
community in whatever way they can. There
are plenty of opportunities for you to climb aboard and make a difference in
your Memphis Community, including teaching and planning alongside Anania in the new ESL Class.
If you have or want any experience in ESL lesson planning or just want to be an
added conversation partner for a student, please come and attend a evening class Monday,
Wednesday at 6:30 pm or the Saturday morning class 10:00 am. There are even opportunities for
Spanish learners to use their Spanish speaking skills for clarification and in
conversation!
For other
news, keep a look out on the Caritas Village website and Facebook page for upcoming
events! There is also a volunteer interest box right on the website where
Caritas would love to hear about your experiences in the café or other Caritas
Events and how you would like to get involved!
Hope to see
you soon!
Written by
Gennine
No comments:
Post a Comment