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FEATURE
KONA Storybook Experiences of 2021 KONA, the Korean Organization of the Natural Approach, is a UNESCO-sponsored initiative to help underprivileged children to learn English through storybooks. Volunteers assist children in orphanages, at community children centers, at day-care centers, and at the KONA Storybook Center in normal times, and online during pandemic times. Here, three of the KONA Volunteers share their experiences and thoughts on contributing their services to KONA throughout the past year. — Ed.
My Year of Volunteering at UNESCO-KONA By Shilpa Rani
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After being associated with KONA for several years, I had to return to India. But the COVID-19 pandemic brought us all back together, this time via the internet. Volunteers from Korea (KONA-families), foreign volunteers from India (myself), Canada (Kevan), and other volunteers residing in Korea from Japan (Yoshiko), Bangladesh (Nayan), India (Shikha), Uzbekistan (Mati), and children from the Gwangju Children’s Home in Gwangju all participate in a Zoom call from their respective homes on the day of volunteering. We split into breakout rooms due to the large number of participants and read and learn from one another. I am delighted for the student volunteers because meeting people from various origins and cultures
January 2022
This quote by Bedford encapsulates the goals of the Korean Organization of the Natural Approach’s (KONA) teaching and learning process. I first visited UNESCO-KONA as a speaker at the KONA Vision Talk in 2010. I met the young volunteers in training there, and I saw how much better children learn from each other than from a one-sided lecture from an adult teacher. They were not even aware that teaching was happening, and learning, too. The idea of learning a language through stories and story maps piqued my interest. Every story is turned into a map, which stimulates visual learning.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” — Clay P. Bedford
I have been a member of the KONA family since 2014. It has been a process of learning and growth for me. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to participate in weekend cultural exchange programs, buddy reading programs, KONA vision talks, Children’s English Library (CEL) volunteering, storytelling sessions at Gwangju International Community Day, and in the Gwangju World Storybook Festival, in addition to volunteering at the Gwangju Children’s Home twice a month.
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