As each summer, the children of the Village Chance had the opportunity to take part in exciting and meaningful activities. This year, the Project office and the department of Education organized summer activities from July 7 to August 8, 2014 to allow these disadvantaged children to have a fun and mentally and physically rewarding summer.
This summer, as many as 156 children participated in the activities, supervised by volunteers from France and Switzerland as well as students from several universities of Ho Chi Minh City. These volunteers have organized many different activities which ended with a trip to Dai Nam Park. Throughout the summer, various topics were chosen to help the students to do physical exercises, develop their creativity, discover new languages, and learn new living skills.
The activities of the first week focused on sport. The children were able to take part in a football tournament and popular games such as the sack race… These activities were designed to teach children traditional games, very different from addictive plays that attract today’s youth. The language activities of second week were the perfect illustration of the saying “Learning by playing”. With the help of foreign volunteers and students from the University of Economics of Ho Chi Minh.
City, the children continued to learn English and become familiar with new foreign languages such as French and Spanish. The pupils were able to develop their knowledge and some of them have shown interesting abilities. The third week, the children could take part in creative activities like drawing, painting or making collages… Most of the works expressed the dreams of the students. The collages were fun but also ingenious at the same time. It was the opportunity for them to freely express their creativity.
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The forth week was dedicated to social activities about « living skills ». The children could learn new skills focused on communication, respect and listening to the parents and the teachers; road safety, respect the rules and identify the traffic signs; protection of the environment and awareness of the greenhouse effect.
Baking and cooking courses were also proposed to them. During the last week, French and Swiss volunteers taught children the famous Macarena as well as other dances such as the Chicken Dance.
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To bring this summer season to a spectacular close, a trip to Dai Nam Park was planned for the children. They had the chance to play games that kids love such as roller coaster, swings or try the thrill of a 4D film, visit the zoo or have a swim. The end of summer also means saying goodbye to the volunteers and starting a new school year. Warm hugs and restless activities will be remembered forever. Children were attached to the enthusiastic students of the University of Economics and loved jumping on the back of Geoffroy and Jean-Philippe.
They liked the coddling of Bérangère and Solène and the fun times with the other volunteers. Many childhood memories have certainly been created during this summer and the kids will probably never forgot these summer activities and the affection received from teachers and volunteers. Time passes, memories remain. The Village Chance will resonate for a long time of the happy laughs of the children. During these summer weeks, they have learned and have fun. They took advantage of their childhood while learning skills that will help them in their adult life and be useful for the community.
Goodbye summer!
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