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January 2019
A new year English for Everyone
2019 has arrived, as has the Chinese new year (of the pig), and that can only mean E4E is looking at another successful year of providing English classes to local, young, determined, and often talented students, the likes of which we have been welcoming for the last 15 years now, and who often have gone on to successful careers in the local tourism field, or other areas where English is a valuable tool in achieving success. 2018 was our first full year on our new location, and since we took on the name E4E, or English for Everyone, which replaced our old name Mekong English Centre. As E4E we continue to provide exactly the same as we have been doing for those 15 years, albeit in an updated, modern and dynamic fashion that befits today's world. Besides providing a number of new English classes for many students, we were especially happy to again welcome several groups of 'needy' students, those young people who are seeking ways to improve their lives by means of education, and in particular English, but have difficulty in paying even the modest fees involved. We were happy to see many girls from the countryside join, and do well in our beginner's classes, as well as many keen youngsters from the local orphanage. Both these groups simply do not consider joining an English course such as we offer, because the money for it is not available. We recognise this and make 'exceptions' for these people. If we're lucky, and to a significant extent, we are, we find sponsors for these students, and for those who are not sponsored, we are grateful for new sponsors who come forward, so we can keep up this routine. Another major event that occurred in our first year here, was the arrival of the Laos Children's Workshop. About halfway through 2018 we were able to accommodate this project which provides possibilities to keen youngsters from the local orphanage to work on and improve their IT skills both through making available a number of computers as well as a variety of cameras that are available to the students free of charge and which greatly benefit their skills. Unfortunately the project had to end as its founder and operator was no longer able to continue. It was then that it became clear that E4E could provide the perfect conditions to keep the project alive, a large enough room to store and run the computers, a system under which the students would be able to borrow and use cameras, and the required supervision to keep the project running smoothly. Since the arrival of the workshop under our roof, the orphans who previously attended it have been coming to E4E to use the computers and borrow the cameras with great regularity from day one until today, and we are happy and proud to be in the position to help keep this project running. E4E hopes to repeat the feats it accomplished in 2018, and hopefully increase the possibilities for young, local people who seek ways to improve their lives and find those opportunities at E4E.
MEC to E4E.
Teacher Somphone's country-side group.
Laos Children's Workshop.