2014 Camp Week 5

CME Week 5 from Project Esperanza on Vimeo.

2014 Camp Week Four

CME Week 4 from Project Esperanza on Vimeo.

Week 3 of Camp Summer 2014

Enjoy this video with pictures, videos, and updates from week 3 of camp!


CME Week 3 from Project Esperanza on Vimeo.

2014 Camp Week Two!

Week two has flown by and it’s time for a quick update!

Peace Corps Volunteer Amanda here filling you in on everything that happened at camp.

The 85 individual students we had at camp this week worked really hard to learn the English words that related to their school. The stations were the same, but that definitely doesn’t mean things have gotten monotonous. With the addition of Peace Corps Volunteer Sara the students also gained a Frisbee for their outdoor games. The older students really took to playing Ultimate Frisbee and Sara found a way to bond with the students. We were sad to see her go on Friday.

We also gained an enthusiastic volunteer named Morganne. She was “Row Row Rowing her Boat” and “Bah Bah Black Sheeping” her way into the hearts of the students all week. The pupils also reviewed many of the songs from week one and really seem to like “5 Little Monkeys”.

In the reading room I split time between reviewing vocabulary, reading to the students, and having the students read to the group. I find it helpful for review to play games using the vocabulary words, so this week we played hangman. A lot of this has to do with the fact that individual letters are so important to the English language so I want the students to be able to recognize individual letters outside of whole words. My favorite part of camp is when I can find an enthusiastic reader to read aloud to his or her peers. I tend to find three a day who really want to take on the challenge of reading to the other students, so I try to make that time enjoyable. More than just a reading station, I hope we can also encourage a culture of books within the students.

This weeks art classes were a lot of fun, because we were focusing on colors. Taylor was able to use water and food coloring to demonstrate different aspects of blending colors. Joanne was able to encourage a lot of use of colors when she helped the students make rainbows using color and coffee filters. It's always nice when we can find a way for the students to express their creativity through art. 

Field day Friday came around lickity split and the teams were ready for their three legged races. Like we say, work hard and then play hard and play hard they did. Everybody tried their best, but the white team came out on top. That was ironic for the week focusing on color and white wins. Oh, science.

All in all it was a very successful week of camp. The students are eager to come and the volunteers are all eager to help them learn. We can’t wait to see what week three will bring.

2014 Camp Week One!

Hello everybody!

My name is Joanne and I’m serving as Volunteer Coordinator for camp this summer. I’m an incoming 4th-year Architecture student at Virginia Tech, where I began my involvement with volunteer work in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. I will begin the blog this summer, and you will later also hear from our PeaceCorps Volunteer Amanda, and PeaceWorks Volunteer Taylor!

Last Friday, we ended week 1 with a quiz, followed by our newly-introduced field day! Our theme of the week was “Welcome to English Camp!” where we focused on greeting phrases, numbers, the alphabet, question words & phrases, days of the week, and our five rules of camp: raise your hand, listen, be respectful, share, and help clean up. Although it seems like it was a lot of information, our campers actually all scored around 90%-95% on their first quiz! 

The campers’ favorite activities this week were making cootie catchers with Taylor, singing “Five Little Monkeys” with me, and reading The Jungle Book with Amanda! This year, we are also implementing a camp prayer, which the kids learned very quickly! It goes like this…

Thank you for the friends we make.

Thank you for the food we eat.

Thank you for the birds that sing.

We give thanks for everything.

By Friday, a 10-year old returning camper, Milena, even led the camp prayer! A video of it is included in our Week One video. It’s wonderful to see how quickly and eagerly the campers learn. Although we had a smaller number of volunteers this week, the campers had a blast! After the field day on Friday, a few campers came up to me and said “Nos vemos mañana?” (See you tomorrow?) and I disappointed them with bad news that camp only runs Monday-Friday. So I’d say that Week One was pretty successful!

Here are a couple of ways you can keep posted with our activities:

• Like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Change-My-Stars/201315789952371
• Follow our Twitter page: https://twitter.com/Change_My_Stars
• continue reading our blog!

Also, check out our Week One video! I apologize that most of the footage are from our Field Day, because I was leading a station myself. As we receive more volunteers, I will have a chance to film some more :)

https://vimeo.com/99569699

If you’re interested in volunteer, we are still accepting volunteers! For further information, please email: volunteer@esperanzameanshope.org

Thanks for reading, and a huge thanks to our very patient volunteers who worked with us this week: PCV Amanda, PWV Taylor, PCV Dallas, PCV Queenie, David, and ex-PCV Maria! We look forwarding to our new volunteers coming in for next week! :)

Partnership with The School Fund

We are happy to announce that we have a partnership with a scholarship platform called The School Fund. They allow top students with financial need at least 13 years of age who are in high school to be posted on their site. The advantages of posting there is that they have an online journal built in where donors and students can write back and forth, as well as the requirement of posting receipts.

This first year they have allowed us to post 5 students. If things go well, we can add more in future years. Out of these 5 students,  Chinaider and Miguelina have been sponsored in full, Naomi has been sponsored 44%, but Wadner and Piterly remain without sponsorship. Please consider posting their profile on your FB page to gain interest! Donors really seem to enjoy the online journal that allows them to communicate with the students. 

In addition, here is a letter from Fefe, our university student. Unfortunately, university students are not allowed to be posted on The School Fund at this time. Lastly, we are in preparation mode for summer camp. We feel confident that this will be the best year yet! 

Hello to all! My name is Freddy. It is a great pleasure writing this message to you that have helped me very much in the university. Many thanks. I don't have money to return what you have given me but there is a God in heaven that will pay back those that are helping me with a good and sensitive heart. But right now I have a problem to register in this next cycle because of money. This is why I write this message to see if there is anyone interested in helping me to continue with my career that it should help not just me but other people. I don't lack much to finish. Please and thank you, his thousand graces and that God blesses you. 

He reports his grades for this quarter that just finished as:

English 5 - A
French 5 - A
Psychology - B
Phonetics - B
General Statistics - A 
Sociology - C

He says that the reason he got a C in Sociology is because of a group project where the group did not take responsibility. 

Thank you for your support!