IBEL

Volunteers tutor underprivileged ethnic minority children (predominantly Nepalese and Pakistani) with their Cantonese, English, and Math homework at a center in Jordan run by IBEL, a local charity. These students lack support in learning Cantonese as a second or third language, causing them to fall behind in class and their studies and resulting in a high school drop-out rate of around 52%.

Unfortunately, our beneficiaries are not privileged enough to have access to stable internet and electronics for online classes. So during the virtual period, we have virtual activities planned for our volunteers, including:

1) Creating a documentary that raises awareness about the challenges underprivileged ethnic minority students face.

2) Starting a blog where we can regularly share content about the general issue and our service group over the coming months.

3) Organizing a care-boxes drive, where CIS students can prepare small gifts for the students at the centre.

Our goal

Our main goal is to raise awareness amongst the CIS community and beyond about the many challenges that underprivileged ethnic minority students face with their education. We also aim to continue to provide support to our beneficiaries during the pandemic.

Expectations

Virtual Plan:

1) We plan to create a documentary that can educate an audience about the challenges underprivileged ethnic minority students face, particularly with their education, and how IBEL (and similiar centres) have helped address this issue. Members can help out with arranging interviews, gathering footage, editing the documentary, and more.

2) We will start a blog where volunteers can share content about the general issue and our service group every week. Members can help out by writing blog articles, working on layout and graphics design, and more.

3) We also plan to design a care-box drive where CIS volunteers can prepare small gifts (e.g. sweets, stationery, chocolate, stationery, books, a handmade card, etc) and gift it to the students at IBEL.

Planning Time: Every Monday from 1:00pm-1:45pm

Service Day: In-person sessions only: Any chosen weekday from 4pm-5:30pm

Location: Jordan

Skills Required

For our virtual activities, no specific skills are required - just having an interest in helping out is enough!

Once the situation improves and we resume in-person sessions, we recommend that students who sign up can speak Cantonese, but this is not required to participate.

Student Leaders

• Samvitti Sharma

• Madeline Liu