Ellie Laks started the Gentle Barn Foundation in California. Her group gives a home to animals it rescued from abuse or in need of care. When recovered, the animals spend time with troubled young people and disabled adults.

ANA GOLDBACH: “I’ve been here for a while.”

Ana Goldbach comes to the Gentle Barn once a week. Caring for animals is said to help people deal with their own problems. Often, the animals get months of special care before they can work with people.

ELLIE LAKS: “This place doesn’t work by just hugging cute animals. It’s the at-risk kids that have been through abuse and neglect and hardship and being misunderstood. When they come face-to-face with an animal that has the exact same story, that’s the healing element. That’s where a kid goes, ‘Wow! I’m not alone. There’s someone else that shares my story. And, if this animal can overcome and is safe here, then I can overcome and be safe in the world.’ So it’s the stories that are healing.”

Laks says her volunteers help educate people about abused animals.

ELLIE LAKS: “And they do so many things. We really count on them for so much. Like I said, all the horses are groomed at 10 o’clock every day. So we’ve got volunteers that come in and groom the horses. We have volunteers that come and take the animals for walks and to eat grass. When we have a special rescue, the animal needs supervision or company we have volunteers that come and supervise that animal, sometimes ’round-the-clock, all through the night.”

Janet Becht began volunteering at the Gentle Barn a year ago.

JANET BECHT: “And it was my birthday. And, I said I’m going to do something special on my birthday. I’m finally going to go. And I didn’t know where it was. It was four miles from my house. So it was very close, and I don’t know, I just never saw anything like this and fell in love with the horses. They scare me, they did. They don’t scare me so much anymore.”

Donations support the work of the Gentle Barn. Ellie Laks hopes to start Gentle Barns across the country so other people can have contact with animals and experience the healing. I’m Barbara Klein.

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In two thousand three, the government of Kenya established a program of free primary education for all children. But there are not enough public schools for all the children who live in the crowded slums of Nairobi. Instead, some of these children attend what are known as non-formal or informal schools. These are supported by communities, religious groups and other organizations.

Informal schools use the national curriculum taught in public schools. But they operate largely with limited resources and without trained teachers. Education activists say the Ministry of Education rarely inspects their teaching quality, lesson notes or examination records. They say the presence of informal schools means that Kenya has two levels of education: One for children from the slums, another for children from better conditions.

Activists say Kenya has at least one thousand six hundred of these non-formal schools. Susan Munuhe is an Education Ministry official. She says only about two hundred informal schools across the country receive money for materials under the free primary education program.

She says one slum in Nairobi, Mathari, has only about three public primary schools nearby. These can serve two thousand children at most. But she says the Mathari slum alone has more than three hundred thousand children of school age.

Diana Atieno Tujuh volunteers as a teacher at the Saint Christine’s Community Center in the Kibera slum, one of the largest in Africa. She says the government has provided books for her school only one time during the past few years. Many parents do not have the money to buy books, so sometimes the teachers pay for them.

She says many students are sleepy and unable to pay attention in class because there is not enough food for them at home. For the children at Saint Christine’s, the mid-day meal they are served might be their only meal all day.

A government spokesman says the government is trying to discourage informal schools. Alfred Mutua says every child in Kenya has the ability to get the same education. The government, he says, has never rejected a child from a public school. He also says the government is building more schools, but it will take time.

And thats the VOA Special English Development Report. Transcripts and podcasts of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 17Aug2009)

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In Jaipur district itself the total literacy is 82.80 percent whereas the literacy rate among girl child is merely 55.52 percent. Thus focusing girl’s education is of utmost need. According to state government statistics per thousand 65 children cannot complete their 3 years of their birth anniversary; majority of them are girls. The various projects being supported by volunteers aim to create opportunities where children from the fringes of society can have equal opportunity to grow.

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Volunteer Abroad Vietnam Hanoi Street Children Center Program Opportunities

Volunteers are needed to provide orphaned and street children in Hanoi with a basic education. This will be done through educational games and activities created by the volunteer. This center works with children who are forced at a young age to earn a living by collecting rubbish, begging, polishing shoes, working in handicraft factories and other like activities. Currently the center houses seventy students are hold three classes- two in the morning and one in the afternoon. As a result, the students are not receiving a full curriculum and the staff is over worked. Volunteers are desperately needed to act as teachers assistants and organize educational games and activities for the students. This project needs international volunteers to work cooperatively to create educational programs which include both Vietnamese and English subjects. The center is the only hope that they have for a better life. (7-8 hours per day)

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