Doha: Over 10 Vodafone employees have volunteered for Carnegie Mellon’s Language Bridges Programme and are teaching English to 30 migrant workers at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q)campus.
The employee charity outreach initiative is part of Vodafone Qatar’s ‘Better World’ programme, the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR)programme, to contribute to community development through initiatives, such as World of Difference and AmanTECH, Vodafone’s online child safety programme, among others.
In collaboration with Qatar Foundation’s Reach Out to Asia (ROTA) programme, Language Bridges provides free basic English language classes for migrant workers. With a two-hour session a week, the programme is designed to teach functional English to enable workers to communicate at work sites in case of an emergency, at the exchange counter when sending money home and other everyday basic communication.
Volunteer teachers include students from CMU-Q and community volunteers from corporate and academic entities. Over 300 volunteers have taught under Language Bridges and 700 learners participated in the programme since 2010.
There are over 1 million migrant workers, mostly poorly skilled and employed in the service and construction industry. The language barrier triggers daily communication issues, decreases self-confidence and hinders the opportunity to socialise.
Dana Haidan, Head, CSR & Sustainability, Vodafone Qatar, said: “One of the aims of Vodafone Better World is to enable passionate selfless people to do good in the community and connect them to opportunities where they can reach out and help in any way possible. This also includes our employees to empower them to invest time to help others in need through connecting them to charities and giving them a certain number of leave days to support their charity of choice.
“Language barrier can sometimes pause a considerable challenge to many, especially in a country where there are over 63 nationalities. It is essential to help contribute to, at the least, the basics of language learnings.”
Volunteering teachers are expected to follow a detailed curriculum designed by Professor Silvia Pessoa from CMU-Q. The curriculum aims to make the lives of teachers easier because it requires very minimal teacher preparation.
The progress of the initiative is reported at http://languagebridges.wordpress.com/ and the programme’s Facebook page invites volunteers, fans and students to post comments.
The community can support the programme by giving funds for training teachers, providing an equipped training space for students and donating educational materials.
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