In 2017

2017 is special as it was the year of our first ever Project Summit with only 2 volunteers. It was a visit to a small orphanage in Guduvanchery, Chennai, India with about 13 children in June 2017. The first 2 days focused on storytelling and educational activities while the last day was all about playing games and providing the children with the necessary back-to-school kits.

Later that year in December, we had our 2nd Project Summit with 3 volunteers to visit an after school study home in Kolkata. 4 days spent with the children engaging in storytelling, playing educational games, and crafting.

In 2018

Rural Education and Action Development, READ, is a non-profit organisation in Andimadam, Tamil Nadu, India that works to improve the social, educational, and economic conditions of the underprivileged. We visited them twice in 2018.

In June, we had our first Project Summit with them. In our session with the teachers, we shared and exchanged ideas on teaching methods and materials. In December, we combined Project Summit and Project Medha in our visit to READ. Not only did we conduct lessons for the children but we also built a library corner and brought a variety of books for them.

In 2019

In collaboration with Good Samaritan Charitable Trust, GSCT, we organised a trip back to Chennai with 4 volunteers in June 2019. This time, we had a bigger group of children to engage with — almost 50 children from varying ages. It was a combined Project Summit and Medha trip. We had 4 days with the children packed with games and activities focusing on English, Mathematics, and Hygiene while finding the time to set up a reading corner with books, toys, and posters.

Yet another combined Project Summit and Medha trip was organised later that year in December 2019. With a group of 3 volunteers, we visited the Supporting Children Initiative Foundation, SCIF Nepal. It’s a small orphanage, home to 13 children from ages 8 to 17, in Kathmandu. We spent our time there teaching language skills through storytelling and introducing them to financial literacy while setting up a library with books and posters.

In December 2019, we also had another Project Medha in Cambodia in collaboration with Dolphin School of English. We spent 4 days repainting and putting together shelves to build a library for them.

In 2020

2020 is almost synonymous with Covid19. This had an impact on our overseas trips due to travel bans. Instead, we started an on-going virtual initiative with SCIF Nepal where we conduct virtual lessons for the children through Zoom weekly. Every month we’ll choose a topic to focus on ranging from English, Mathematics, Science, Health, Civics, and more for volunteers to create their own lesson plan for the children in Nepal.

In 2022

Finally in 2022 when travel was possible again, we started to plan our next Project Summit back to SCIF Nepal. We had volunteers who conducted virtual lessons in 2020 jump at the opportunity to visit and engage with these children face to face. A team of 4 volunteers conducted lessons around English, Science, Geography, and Sustainability. They even choreographed a dance number with the children. We also had a generous donation of books and a projector for the children in SCIF Nepal.

In 2023

We truly have a deep connection with SCIF Nepal as we visited them again in June 2023. With 3 volunteers, the focus for Project summit was on English, Science, and Math. As we know the children have a passion for dance, we conducted Zumba sessions with them too. In a twist of events, the folks over at SCIF Nepal arranged for a cooking lesson rooted in Nepal cuisine for our volunteers — truly a unique experience.

In December 2023, we made a visit to READ after 5 years. A  team of 3 volunteers set out to spend 4 days teaching a class of 80 children on road safety, use of mobile phones, eating habits, and recycling. They also repainted one of the rooms for the kindergarteners.