In September 2012, PH International Georgia launched Cycle 2 of English Language through Civic Education (ELCE) program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and is implemented by PH International in close cooperation with the Georgetown University Center for Intercultural Education and Development (CIED), English Teachers’ Association of Georgia (ETAG) and Georgian Ministry of Education and Science.
Prior to launching the new cycle of the program, introduction meetings were held with the participating school principals and teachers in all the regions of program implementation During the meetings PH team delivered brief presentations on the ELCE program and introduced the English Language Teacher Trainers to their future trainees. On September 22 ELCE Program held its first training workshop for Cycle 2 in all the regions of program implementation.
During the previous cycle, ELCE program directly trained 83 teachers from 31 schools in five regions of Georgia: Kakheti, Shida Kartli, Imereti, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Adjara. In the second cycle, ELCE will expand its activities into two more regions of Guria and Kvemo Kartli and will train about 150 English Language teachers from over 60 public schools in Georgia. Over the lifetime of the project, ECLE expects to cover around 150 schools and directly train about 375 throughout the country.
In the towns of Dilijan, Nor Hachn and Chambarak, the three ACCESS Armenia sites, 54 students from socially vulnerable families are selected and ready to participate in the program.
The recruitment was conducted through 2 stages: review of submitted application forms and assessment of interviews. The applicant’s level of social need was also taken into consideration. Out of 86 students who had applied to the program, 18 students are selected in each site.
The students have already taken an English Language Competency diagnostic test which they will retry at the end of the 2-year intensive after-school English instruction to measure their language acquisition progress and success.
- On 11 Septemebr 2012, teachers of junior pupils of Rivne's School №19 met after classes to discuss the problem of children's safety in Internet. Tetyana Melnyk, the coordinator of the IDEA Center in Rivne moderated the discussion. The teachers told that even some 1st grade pupils are active users of social networks and numbers of such children grow every year. Adults are experienced enough, of cause, to know about possible negative consequences of using Internet carelessly. However, do children know about it? Do parents pay attention to it? How to bring to the parents and children the Internet safety rules? These are the questions discussed by the training participants who developed ways for a positive solution of this issue.
In a quiet and peaceful cafeteria atmosphere, at 10:00 on Sept. 9, 2012, without pathos speeches of elected officials, anthems, and showcase gatherings, graduates of the IDEA Kryvyy Rih Center received certificates about their completion of IDEA courses.
A friendly union of the City Center of Social Services for Family, Children and Youth; NGO “Chance”; and Charity Fund “Favor” co-participating in the IDEA Center’s programs’ implementation in 2012 presented to children from low-income families a possibility to receive additional knowledge free-of-charge. During the year, 26 students of the Center studied various computer programmes, learnt English, and took part in psychological training sessions.
The ZANG Program continues to successfully establish links with new organizations and cooperate with them. One of the recent events was a good proof of collaboration between the ZANG Program, the Cross of Armenian Unity (CAU), an NGO hosting the Community Justice Center in Echmiadzin of Armavir region and the Alumni Council of Armenia of CABIR (Capacity Building in International Relations), an initiative sponsored by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by the Executive Education Department of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
A team of 15 alumni from the 2011 YouthLAB program, funded by the U.S. government and implemented by Project Harmony – International, has just launched an exciting mentoring program for their young peers across Armenia. The newly launched “PLAY – Promoting Leadership among Armenian Youth” Mentoring program , funded through a grant from U.S. Department of State, Alumni Engagement and Innovation Fund (AEIF), will be implemented throughout August 2012-March 2013.
At Batumi Public School #2, third graders and their English language teacher again, inspired by one of the ELCE program topics of volunteerism, decided to devote half a lesson to joining a class of learning-challenged children and helping them prepare special drawings and letters addressed to parents. Once the drawings and letters were ready, children volunteered to act as postmen and deliver the letters to the addressees. The action stirred a lot of emotions of compassion not only among the students and their teachers, but also among the parents of the children from both classes and other students in the school.
On June 6, 2012, GLSP hosted representatives of Armenian Legal Socialization Program ZANG.
On June 7, Tinatin Ebanoidze, GLSP Program Manager and Nino Gogoladze, Program Coordinator made a presentation about components and activities of the program for the guests at hotel Varazi. The presentation embraced the GLSP and was followed by Q&A session.
As part of the 2012 Civics Camp cycle, USAID Caucasus Mission Director, Mr. Stephen Heykin visited civics education summer camp in Bazaleti Training Center. Civics education summer camp was held in the framework of the Applied Civic Education and Teacher Training Program (ACETT) implemented by PH International Georgia and funded by USAID. In total more than 270 civics club students from 11 regions of Georgia were participants of the camp.