Seven volunteers from the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) have been recognised in a ceremony for their participation in the Reach Out To Asia’s Adult English Literacy programme.The students were trained to teach English to migrant workers with low English literacy abilities and subsequently ran a six-week English literacy course for workers in their university. The ceremony also recognised the achievements of the workers who completed the English literacy course taught by the Carnegie Mellon students.Rota Community Development manager Mohamed Abdullah al-Saleh and CMU-Q Student Activities and First Year Students director Dave Stanfield presented certificates to the volunteers and the workers during the event.The Adult English Literacy was launched by Rota to enhance the quality of life of workers in Qatar, whose inability to understand English was a hindrance to their living normally in the country. Rota has previously run its English language programme in collaboration with Al Jaidah Group workers using CMU-Q volunteers, which led to the new programme being carried out in collaboration with CMU-Q.Volunteers began attending training sessions in March 2011, where they were taught about global migration pattern, labour migration to Qatar, communications skills, adult learning abilities and practical skills to help them teach the initiative of REAL language curriculum. Upon completion of their training, CMU-Q students held classes twice a week for six weeks to fine-tune their teaching abilities. With the blessing of the Qatar Foundation Facilities Management department, 15 university workers were targeted by the trial classes, including custodians and office assistants. “The training programme’s goal is to get highly-trained volunteers to teach those lacking English language skills. The students were highly motivated, and expressed a true readiness to help those in need,” al-Saleh said.Also speaking about the programme, Dave said: “We were extremely pleased with the results of this programme. Both sets of participants, the Carnegie Mellon student volunteers and the English language students, agreed that in addition to learning a new language, the trial courses encouraged positive interaction between members of the same community that don’t often have the opportunity to connect.”With the success of the year’s REAL initiative, Rota is planning to run the programme again with the coming of the new academic year in September.“But this time, we are thinking bigger as we will look to partner with other Education City institutions… and beyond,” Saleh said.More information about the programme and other volunteer-based initiatives can be had at
www.reachouttoasia.org.