This year, the Rotary Club chose to do the project for the SOS Village. The SOS Village is an orphanage built on the German model of SOS Children Village, which was founded to provide a home for post Second World War orphans.

The trainees provided entertainment for the children of the SOS Village. Several pedagogical activities, consisting of singing, games and entertainment, were performed. The Australian trainees and tutors accompanying them were unanimous to declare that our children are extremely cooperative, and show a lot of affection and determination to learn. Their ability to mix and converse with Australians who have no knowledge of French or Creole was noteworthy. It was much beyond the expectation of the personnel of the SOS village.

The trainees are working in two schools, Quinze cantons Government Schools and Henrietta Government School for the time being (25 Sept to 6 Oct). These schools were chosen by Om Varma, Associate Professor at  MIE,  who is also a Rotarian at the Vacoas Club and coordinating the visits of the trainees for 10 years now.  He believes that all our children can learn English and are very receptive to the teachers, especially when learning is made fun, when children are given the right motivation and valued for their contribution. Considerable improvement in their understanding and ability to use the English language has been noted each time the trainees have worked in our schools. The Mauritius College of the Air has also produced several video programmes of the working of the ECU trainees for a number of years and available at the MCA, Reduit. These materials are especially helpful for teachers as well as parents.

The tutor for the ECU, Janet Fellowes, explained how using a conversational method, a lot of modelling and patience has helped the trainees to get a wonderful teaching experience in Mauritius. This will be immensely beneficial for those willing to take up a teaching assignment in places where there are many children of diverse origin, including the Aboriginal population of Australia. They favour Mauritius and value this training opportunity because Mauritius offers a unique field experience and the possibility to reflect on and greatly improve their ability to teach English language non native speakers of English. This project with the Rotary Club is part of the University’s Global Corporate Responsibility. The trainees conducted fund raising activities in Perth and gathered  materials for the SOS Village Children project. Thus each of the 49 children of pre-primary and primary school going age, was offered a bag with stationery and books. Additional  gifts were offered by the Rotary Club of Vacoas which organised this project and promises more next year.