JOHOR BARU – Over 130 student volunteers are providing free English and Mathematics tuition to underprivileged communities in Indonesia and Malaysia through an initiative called Project Ivy.
Project Ivy co-founder Abhinav Kumar, an International Baccalaureate student in Singapore, explained that his group currently provides education for 120 students.
“Our volunteers currently hail from secondary and tertiary institutions across Singapore and Malaysia, teaching our students English and Mathematics on a weekly basis,” Abhinav said when contacted.
Each volunteer, Abhinav says, provides one-to-one personalised classes for their students via Google Meets.
In Malaysia, Project Ivy serves Myanmar refugees through the partnership of The Peace Education Centre and the HiiChiiKok Foundation.
“The Peace Education Centre is home to hundreds of Myanmar refugees who are unable to access public education in Malaysia.
“The HiiChiiKok Foundation houses over 30 underprivileged Malaysian students from various communities, who are unable to access the same resources and facilities due to their socio-economic status,” Abhinav added.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Christopher Hendra, also a 19-year-old student and a co-founder of Project Ivy, said that the group began after meeting Abhinav who had the same desire to serve underprivileged communities.
Both Kenneth and Abhinav launched the group in January this year.
Given the challenges of facing volunteers who are either still in high school or tertiary institutions, Project Ivy provides a flexible schedule whereby each volunteer only tutors once per week for an hour.
“Most of our volunteers are students based in Singapore and we conduct our teachings online through Google Meet.
“We make it flexible for them so that it doesn’t strain their academic life.
“If a volunteer or one of our students are not able to make it we can always reschedule,” Kenneth told The Vibes.
Kenneth who is an Indonesian national, explained that Project Ivy’s operations in Indonesia mainly serve low-income communities who are not able to provide tuition for their children.
“These families in Indonesia live day-to-day and can’t really prioritise spending too much on their children’s education.
“Plus, from my personal knowledge, there are gaps in Indonesia’s education that Project Ivy aims to fill.
“Some of our students when we start teaching them don’t know the alphabet and we have to start from scratch,” Kenneth added.
Currently, Kenneth explained that Project Ivy has no funding and explained that the organisation relies on Singapore’s education system which encourages volunteerism.
For its future, Kenneth hopes that Project Ivy will be able to provide products to adults who were not able to receive proper or formal education when they were younger.
“We take advantage of the Singapore curriculum here which encourages students to volunteer to increase their personal skills.
“20 to 30% of our volunteers are from Singapore while the rest are foreigners studying here.
“We are looking to gain more tutors from Indonesia and Malaysia,” Kenneth added. – The Vibes, June 1, 2023
