EIT

What Is EIT?

EIT (English & IT, pronounced "eight") is a project * founded in June 2021 by a computer scientist who has experiences of teaching at universities in US, Japan and Myanmar. (*) EIT is not registered as an NPO (Non-Profit Organization) with a tax-exempt status in US yet because it is currently operating solely with the founder's personal fund.

Mission

EIT aims at providing the youth in developing countries with opportunities of learning English and/or IT and assisting them to develop skills of English and/or IT for their future careers.

Kairos (God of Opportunity): Seize the Moment, While It Lasts!

The youth in Myanmar are now in a desperate situation due to both the pandemic and the coup. They need hopes for the future. Education is the key for them to get ready to grasp an opportunity whenever it becomes available to them. Thus Myanmar is currently the top priority of EIT's mission.

The EIT project currently consists of four programs in Myanmar (described below).

EIT originated with our volunteer activities in Myanmar since June 2017.

How We Started EIT

The EIT founder (computer scientist) volunteered to give IT tutorials at 4 universities (Lashio University in Northern Shan State, Myeik University in Tanintharyi Region, Pathein University in Ayeyarwady Region, and Yadanabon University in Mandalay), 4 public schools, and a monastery school in Myanmar between June 2017 and Dec. 2019.
He formed a volunteer group of his Myeik University students in 2018 who were willing to share their IT knowledge & skills with others and give IT Literacy tutorials to other students. The volunteer group continues to recruit & train new volunteers and has grown to a few dozen volunteers before the pandemic.

As soon as the IT Volunteer Group was formed, 9 volunteers created a Burmese textbook for IT Literarcy tutorial based on the PowerPoint slides of the computer scientist.
He took the 9 volunteers of Myeik University to Pathein University and let the volunteers to give IT Literacy tutorials to students of Pathein University in Dec. 2018. They demonstrated how students could be instructors of IT tutorials for other students and made students of Pathein University impressed & encouraged to do the same thing for their peer students. Then, he gave a training workshop to some of the Pathein students for becoming voluntary IT instructors for other students and formed a volunteer group at Pathein University in 2019.

The volunteer group has grown to over 20 volunteers before the pandemic.
He took 4 volunteers of Myeik University to Yadanabon University in Mandalay in June 2019 and gave a training workshop to about 20 CS major students for becoming voluntary IT instructors for other major students and formed a volunteer group at Yadanabon University.

A volunteer with an MA degree in English started to voluntarily give English lessons to students of a public school since 2019. The lessons intend to improve "practical" English skills of the students rather than preparation for a matriculation exam in Myanmar.
A group of volunteers has started to give English lessons at an orphanage in June 2021. Another group has also started IT lessons to students of public schools and monastery schools.

EIT has been founded in June 2021 to organize these volunteer activities as one project, support them better, and expand them more because education in Myanmar has been in turmoil since Feb. 1, 2021.

New Activities

Two more groups of volunteers will start to give English and IT lessons to students in remote areas like villages far from cities in the near future once situations of the pandemic and social unrest become better and stable.

There are currently 6 groups of volunteers who contribute to the Kokua Program (described below).

EIT has launched Professional Development Program (PDP). It is a training program in Myeik starting from August 2021 in collaboration with an experienced professional Web developer who moved from Yangon to Myeik after the coup. It aims at awarding a small group of trainees free training classes in which experienced professionals coach the trainees and help the trainees develop their skills for IT professionals and/or technical communication specialists.

Programs

Kokua *

EIT supports volunteers to offer free lessons of English and/or IT to learners in their local communities.

EIT provides learners with the following.

Free lessons (typically 3 times a week, 1 hour each)
Free textbook to learners
Laptops for learners of IT classes
Other necessary equipment such as a white board and a projector
References for volunteers to learn teaching methods

(*) Kokua is the Hawaiian word that generally means "help" in English, but sometimes to cooperate or to have consideration for others.
#Kokua #Help4Hope

IT classes typically take about 2 months. In contrast, English classes (3 lessons per week, 1 hour each) continue much longer, typically several years, because a foreign language can be learned only after substantial, continuous efforts of learning it.

Currently, learners are selected with the following criteria.

The youth (typically age 10 ~ 16, but not limited to) who are eager to learn, but would unlikely be able to have a chance of learning without EIT's offer
The youth (including adults) in villages who are eager to learn

CELTA

EIT offers scholarships to volunteers who are qualified to pursue a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) by Cambridge Assessment English.

EIT provides the scholarship awadees with the following.

Tuition of a CELTA course
Round-trip expenses & living costs (including accommodation) if a course is not online (an in-person course is desirable for a trainee with less prior experience in teaching)

The first awardee was supposed to take a trip for CELTA at LEXIS in Brisbane, Australia, between May 21st ~ Sep 21, 2020. This award would not come up without an offer of support to the awardee from Australians who have experiences of teaching in Myanmar. However, due to the outbreak of the pandemic, it has been postponed. When travel restrictions for the pandemic will be eased, we plan to carry out this award (hopefully by Q4 2022).

Another awardee of 2021 is expected to take an online part-time CELTA course in Thailand in Q4 2021. However, it depends on the stability of Internet in Myanmar where Tatmadaw continues to disrupt or hinder or throttle down Internet connections via telecoms for suppressing civilians' pro-democracy activities.

PDP

Professional Development Program

EIT sets up a training environment for the youth in which experienced professionals in fields of IT or English coach trainees to develop knowledge & skills necessary for their career paths. Training is expected to take 1 ~ 3 years, depending on their prior experiences & skills. See more details of PDP at its website.

EIT provides trainees with the following.

Free training by a coach who is an experienced professional
Free lease of a laptop to a trainee if the trainee doesn't have it

PDP also plans to offer internships to trainees 1 ~ 2 years later such that the trainees can participate in an actual development project and acquire hands-on experiences through the project.

For trainees from rural areas far from Myeik, EIT possibly offers a scholarship covering accommodation cost in Myeik (about 100,000 MMK per month) upon availability of funds.

Questions? Contact us at info@8eit.org

HHP

Hawaii Homestay Program

EIT provides awardees with the following.

Round-trip expenses
Tuitions for classes of an English school in Honolulu
Homestay expenses including accommodation, meals, and other basic living costs

The first two awardees (students of a public hight school) were supposed to take a trip for homestay in Honolulu between May 21 ~ Sep 21, 2020 and study English at Hawaii Palms English School for 12 weeks. But, due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the trip was canceled unfortunately.

Then, two graduate students were selected for awards in 2021, assuming that the pandemic situation would become better in 2021. But, the coup happened in Myanmar and the pandemic continues to hinder international trips.

This program is currently suspended for a while (at least till mid-2022). Hopefully, it will be able to resume in the near future.

Call for Collaboration

We are sure that there are other individuals or organizations doing similar activities. We would like to learn from them how they are dealing with difficult situations & challenging tasks. Please share your experiences and insights with us and let us know your comments and/or suggestions.

Please Give Us Your Input

Send us a message. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

info@8eit.org

eit8project@gmail.com

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