It’s been awhile since our last blog post! Things have really picked up speed here at SOUP and when we’re not working with the kids here, we’re spending time with Joy on development plans for his organization over the next four years. We’re doing things like helping him create a functional newsletter, updating and reorganizing his website, and documenting the stories of each child that stays with SOUP into forms to send to one of their partner agencies, Free for Life Ministries. We’re also talking a lot about the fundraising that is going to be required for them to construct a brand new shelter home, something they would like to see completed within the next year.
One of the great things we’ve been doing with the kids has been their work on the computer. We’re getting each of them set up with an email address, and then having them send emails to a past volunteer at SOUP they remember, or the family members of Michelle and I. Their faces every time they realize that they are sending an actual letter halfway around the world are priceless, and it’s even better every time they see a reply! I really wish we could set up some kind of pen-pal program between the kids here and kids from the United States, but one of the biggest problems is that we’re using Joy’s computer to work with the kids. There are no other computers for them to use, and while right now Michelle and I are able to find time to work with each child individually, that’s just not going to work when we leave. Another problem is that most of the kids have never even seen a computer before, so they need lots of individual attention – and a 1 on 1 computer tutor is not something SOUP is capable of providing when we’re gone.
Another thing we’re teaching them on the computer is the power of Google. We want to show them the concept that with the internet and computer skills it is possible to find information about almost anything they want to. To do this we’ll take them to Google images and have them search an object, like flowers, or cricket, or books. Again their faces every time they see 50 pictures of flowers pop up on the computer screen are incredible.
The last thing we’re doing on the computer, which has been incredible, is using our laptop to teach Gautam some computer engineering things on Excel! One day, when we were asking the children what they wanted to be when they grew older, Gautam told us he wanted to be a computer engineer. Michelle studied computer engineering her freshman year at Vanderbilt and so she has been using what her syllabus from that class to teach him! He picks up the new information at lightening speed and has even started correcting Michelle on some of the problems she teaches him.
I really never appreciated before this just how big of a role a computer could play in a child’s development and education. Just knowing that they can find any information you want and contact anyone you want using Google and email literally has opened the whole world to them.
02 JUL 2009