Tatia Rtveladze ‘14
Project title: English Teaching for Internally Displaced Persons
Project Location: Gori, Georgia
$527 in 2015 FLEX Alumni Grant Program Funding
From July 10-24, 2015 Tatia Rtveladze ‘14 and Nino Lobjanidze ‘14 conducted an English language summer camp for children from internally displaced families originating from South Ossetia. Gori, Georgia is the primary town where internally displaced persons from South Ossetia have resettled. Alumni organized the camp at the Gori Youth Palace for 25 middle and high school aged students. Participants took part in over 30 hours of English language instruction and sessions on teambuilding and communication skills.
Learning a foreign language in a friendly environment was fun and motivating for the students and they quickly found themselves absorbed in the process. Throughout the project, alumni talked about their FLEX experiences, encouraging the teenagers to take part in the first rounds of the competition. Upon the completion of the camp, participants received certificates for successfully completing the project and many noted their interested to continue learning English and keep searching for new opportunities to improve their language, including applying for FLEX.
The event received significant support and included innovative techniques to recruit participants. The Gori Youth Palace donated the venue and all necessary audio-visual equipment for free to the alumni for the two-week camp. Alumni also fundraised money to purchase books and stationery for the event. Finally, alumni actively promoted the project working to recruit a motivated and dedicated group of students for this project. In order to secure family support to send the students to this language camp, alumni met with families and held one on one meetings with them to share their motivation for the project and outline the trainings.
