📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
G.E.L. (Globe Education Link) English Centre was opened in 2015 and is located in Lao Cai city in the north of Vietnam about 4 hours from the capital, Hanoi. Lao Cai is a modern city with good facilities such as restaurants, shops and fitness centres. It is serviced by rail and an excellent bus service and is close to the Sapa area, famous for its beautiful scenery, hiking and ethnic minorities.
Main Aims and Activities
GEL was founded as a social enterprise with the objective of providing first class English learning to students of all ages and to contribute to the growth and well being of the community.
It is funded by tuition fees based on the student’s financial situation. Some pay full fees, others a reduced fee and some receive tuition at no cost. No one is turned away. GEL also provides scholarships to worthy students.
There are classes offered from kindergarten to adult at the centre and GEL is also contracted to provide lessons at a number of elementary and high schools in and around Lao Cai.
There is also an ongoing program to provide English instruction at no cost at the newly constructed Lao Cai Orphanage.
GEL has provided some free workshops which help English teachers in the whole province to teacher better. There are also some training courses for staff who work in Orphanage to help them have better skills in taking care of children there. Some other free workshops on ABCD (asset based community development) for civil servants of different fields in the province are also provided. Free teaching communication for English teachers in Lao Cai city is now attracting more and more learners.
💼 What the programme involves
GEL welcomes volunteer teachers of all levels of experience. The only pre-requisite is a good command of the English language (speaking, reading and writing), a passion to help people and unlimited energy.
Volunteers are encouraged to involve themselves in many other community projects, such as teaching English at government schools (primary, secondary or high schools), workshops and lessons for Vietnamese English teachers, organizing activities and events at local schools, judging English competitions, taking students on field trips, updating and maintaining our website and so on.
The children, parents and schools highly enjoy having international volunteers around. Due to their warm reception, volunteers generally become equally fond of the children and enjoy the program very much.
Schools start at 7 am in the morning and finish at 11.30 am. There is a break for lunch (from 11.30a.m to 13.40) then start again at 1.45pm to 4.30pm. In GEL, volunteers normally work in the afternoons, evenings and weekends so volunteers can have days off on weekly days. These can be negotiable and flexible.
🏠 Accommodation on site
The school has rooms for volunteers in the campus. The rooms are equipped with cooking stuff so that volunteers can cook for themselves. Volunteers who prefer to have daily interaction with local people can stay with a local family, usually a teacher or a student’s family. In this case, volunteers will eat with the family or they will cook themseves. They travel to work by bicycle or on foot. Volunteers can choose to stay with the family to experience Vietnamese life as long as they expect then they can move in the campus to stay in their own rooms. There are no students or any families on campus, just the guards so it’s quiet but it’s busy outside the gate.
The GEL centre is housed in a modern building close to down town Lao Cai. Volunteers are provided with air- conditioned rooms in GEL, too if the rooms are still available. Meals are provided and there are cooking and laundry facilities. GEL has bikes and motorbikes so volunteers can take turns to use for their travelling.
📍 About the location
Address: 046- Tran Hung Dao Street- Bac Lenh ward- Lao Cai City, Lao Cai, Vietnam. It is about 4 to 5 hour bus ride from Hanoi. Very close to Sapa tourist attraction.
ℹ️ Additional information
The program fee is 300Euro for the first two weeks and then 75Euro for each week after. The fee is to cover airport pickup, orientation, project visit, food and lodging, public transportation to work, regular support and coordinator from local team.