ELT Syrianrefugeescrowdsourced activity book English language teaching Julie Pratten7767813

A visiting lecturer with the University of Brighton has launched a publishing initiative to raise funds for educating Syrian children residing in camps in Iraqi Kurdistan. In October 2015 Julie Pratten told us she received a Facebook message asking for aid from a logistics officer with the Domiz camp near Dohuk in Iraqi Kurdistan. She then launched a crowdfunding initiative to improve money to set up a school within the camp.

Ms Pratten said she was told that the volunteers who work in the camp ground were so busy coping with health concerns that nobody had time to completely engage the kids”, she said. “They didn’t have got activities, a computer, or craft supplies, they didn’t also have a room where they may play.”She continued to convey them to be given permission to turn a “mobile unit, full of old boxes” within the camp in to a classroom, which Kaniwar, and a few other volunteers from the camp cleared out and full of donated craft supplies and furniture borrowed from a local school outside of the camp. One's heart School is run by way of a local English teacher, that is additionally a refugee. To date, the work has raised around ?3,000.If we started “The kids were queuing up outside to get in the classroom,” Ms Pratten continued. “We can show about 100 kids. These kids are already by way of a lot. Some of them have forfeit their parents towards the war. Others have lost their friends for the sea. During this period they only must play and sing and also have a little fun. For 4 years they’ve experienced that camp as well as their lives have been getting hold.”The goal of the publishing initiative is always to raise funds to aid the school. ‘Now the school is defined I am interested in the sustainability from the project. Asking people for money is hard so I decided to change my strategy and order help from the international community of ELT Syrianrefugeescrowdsourced activity book English language teaching Julie Pratten. I attracted authors and teachers to ‘donate’ one activity each. The 1st publication, A-Z of Hope is often a crowdsourced book of 26 activities for young learners to teenagers on the universal theme of joy and happiness. The response from authors may be overwhelming. Book 1 and 2 are fully subscribed and that we use a waiting list of authors able to step up if a person can’t submit. Now we have over 160 authors enrolled who're prepared to give rise to future projects. The initial book will be published at eliminate April and will also be launched at the Annual IATEFL conference to become held from 13 to 16 April at the ICC in Birmingham.