Why not volunteer? If you can spare a bit of your time you can:-
- share your ideas, tips and suggestions
- write articles or stories for the magazine
- do some writing, illustrations or development work for the network.
(You can also contact me via the forum or the FAQs page.)
Current Volunteers
Your Teacher
Your Teacher, aka Lynne.
I am a qualified TEFL teacher living and working in Germany. I have been running the Learn English Network since 1999.
Amatsu for Health
Amatsu for Health, aka Karen, has been helping out on the forum since 2007. She is an ex teacher from the UK, who now works as a therapist. She enjoys thinking up new word games to challenge the forum students.
Marianne
My name is Marianne and I am a British/French national. I was brought up in Britain and French is a second language (I also speak some rudimentary Spanish and struggle with trying to learn Nepali).
After working a long time in London, six years ago I decided to travel and take a break from the rat race. I didn’t get far, as after starting in India, Ifound myself staying in Nepal, where I had visited as a tourist a few times before.
Why Nepal? I’m not really sure. It couldn’t be more different from the order, cleanliness and rich lifestyle that comes with living in a developed country. Maybe that’s why I enjoy living here so much, as every day is a little bit like an adventure.
Already a trained teacher, I very soon found myself teaching English as a foreign language to Nepalis and loving it! I enjoy the most the communication opportunities it offers. I am always very keen to learn about other people’s interests and cultures, so working on the Forum is perfect for this.
I share many of Lynne’s sentiments, in particular the right to education (and healthcare), that should be free. This is something we Brits tend to take for granted, as this most of us were brought up with free education and healthcare, but this is far from the norm in many other countries, especially in poor countries like Nepal.
In Nepal, I run a small charity called Rural Assistance Nepal (RAN) www.rannepal.org that is registered with the UK Charity Commission. RAN pays the salary of a few teachers at government schools, which are always understaffed in Nepal, and pays the salary of two Nepali nurses to run a small healthpost in a remote hill area in the east of Nepal. Another UK charity, HexN (UK) www.hexn.org helps by providing supplies of medicines to this healthpost. Currently I am working on a project to fund raise and build a small community hospital in the very poor and neglected western region of Nepal. I encourage volunteers who want to help at schools (usually with teaching English), and medics who can help at healthposts and a government hospital that I’m working with. Volunteers have to be completely self-funding and take care of themselves, as all RAN can do is pass on the information where to go and what to do, but this seems to work well.
