MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE TUKTUK FAMILY🎄
The end of 2020 has come around so fast, where has the year gone?! How was your year?
We are sure that in one way or another the pandemic changed your plans for it. This is certainly the case for TukTuk. Although it was a tough year for us because we couldn't visit the schools, we learned to adapt to this new way of living and embraced some new digital teaching materials which we will continue to use and develop next year.
The new school year is scheduled to start in January, which is a bit more delayed than the usual start but of course, we are adapting and changing the plan accordingly. Next year we look forward to sharing and developing a new project and an exciting new helper will appear (keep your eye out in the next issue!)
Despite this whirlwind of a year that presented many ups and downs, we are so thankful to be supported by everyone in this wonderful community.
Thank you very much for everything!
We wish you all a good ending to 2020 and look forward to chatting again in the new year ☆
Happy holidays! 🎅🎍
Adrian & Mayu 🦘👘
Summary of 2020 Activities✍🏻
Since March in 2020, many school activities were restricted due to COVID-19. However, we have been steadily working on helping each staff member learn and develop how to work and teach remotely from home.
In summary, this is some of the amazing work we have been able to achieve this year, despite teaching and learning remotely.
Picture books: 4 books (2 books in progress!)
Music videos: 12 (6 videos are being created!)
Worksheets: over 230 sheets
Instruction videos: over 33 videos
Activity sheets: over 31 sheets
Illustrations in the Illustration Bank: over 104 sheets
Translated picture books: over 60 books
Mobile Library: 53 times (it was implemented from January to March due to COVID-19)
Tuk Tuk Theatre: 26 times (it was implemented from January to March due to the COVID-19)
Ukulele lessons graduates: 4 teachers
Volunteers: 21 volunteers (6 volunteers came to Pursat)
In 2021, we hope that COVID-19 case numbers will begin to reduce in Cambodia and all over the world and that classes in person will be possible in Cambodia as usual.
For now, we've been uploading more and more for the teachers and students to utilise, and uploading picture books and worksheets, and music videos.
CONGRATULATIONS CHHING CHHING 👏
Chhing Chhing has been helping with planning and delivering activities for the school since September and has now successfully completed her three months internship period.
She is enrolled in a graphic design course at Phare Ponleu Selpak, an art school in the neighboring province of Battambang. Over the course of her internship, she has demonstrated her amazing talent and abilities by creating worksheets for the school and assistance in the creation of the much needed 'Illustration Bank'.
The Illustration Bank is a big database of illustrations based on themes such as school, vegetables, and fruits, and is intended for teachers to freely use in their classes. Since there are still many themes for the illustrations we want to create, we will continue to ask Chhing Chhing to help us with our activities remotely.
We hope that she will make use of this three-month internship and her future experience at TukTuk to fulfill her wonderful dream of drawing illustrations for children!
Thank you Chhing Chhing!
THE KHMER TEACHING MATERIAL WORKSHEETS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED 🎉
In addition to the Illustration Bank, Chhing Chhing has also created a total of 186 worksheets. She has been busy!
The worksheets will help children to learn Khmer letters and numbers by making the learning a fun and interactive learning process that incorporates the opinions of the teachers.
It has already been distributed to several kindergartens and used by many teachers. Parents who have seen children using worksheets also said that they wanted teaching materials. We are very happy to see signs that TukTuk teaching materials will be used not only in kindergartens but also at home. You can download the created worksheets from here (alphabet, numbers), so please take this opportunity to learn and write Khmer characters ✍🏼
KHMER OF THE MONTH
Khmer Word: Abasator Bon Noel
December means one thing... Christmas! So with that...
"Merry Christmas!" is a combination of "Abasator" which means "Congratulations" and "Bon Noel" which means "Christmas".
"Abasator" is a word that can be used for any celebration, so please use it when you have a new year, a birthday, or a good thing♪
Khmer Food: Cha Muk Mrech Khchei (stir-fried squid and pepper)👇
SOCIAL INSURANCE SYSTEM 🩺
In Cambodia, under the name of National Social Security Fund (NSSF), the workers' accident compensation system was started in 2008 and the health insurance system was started in 2016 for civil servants and private companies. However, since it has not spread nationwide yet, NSSF staff are working to increase the insurance coverage rate through visiting surveys and briefing sessions.
TukTuk staff have joined since 2019, but last month the NSSF staff actually came and explained in detail regarding; "What is the National Social Insurance Fund?" and "When is the insurance covered?". We hope that listening to the explanation will create an environment where everyone can work with greater peace of mind.
VOLUNTUKER SPOTLIGHT | ROBERTA
Our wonderful voluntuker Roberta volunteered in Cambodia from February to May 2019 and still continues to virtual volunteer until today.
She is a teacher in Norway and a specialist in early childhood education. When she came to Pursat, she made good use of her experience and helped to make teaching materials and teachers workshops.
Even after leaving Cambodia, she continues to support the making of teaching materials and picture books and is a spoke in the TukTuk wheel that keeps us moving forward. Thank you for all your hard work, Roberta!
Roberta is known to the staff as "Mummy". Originally she was planning to come to Cambodia again this year, so all the TukTuk children are eagerly awaiting her return as soon as it is possible!