THE PROBLEM: English has emerged as a key tool to respond to unrelenting globalisation. But across the world, some communities who really need it are being left out. For them, life will become ever harder. Christine Townsend knows this from living and working in low resource contexts in Asia and Africa.

THE SOLUTION: Local education organisations across the world want to take on the challenge to develop ongoing and appropriate English language learning initiatives. With your gift to help cover volunteering expenses and living costs, and travel expenses where necessary, Christine can provide the advice and training they need.

THE DETAILS:

VISION
Christine believes in fair access to the power of language

PARTICIPANTS
The staff and volunteers of local organisations across the developing world

OBJECTIVES
1) Appropriately designed curriculums (including course and training material)
2) Adequately prepared local trainers
3) Sufficiently trained local teachers

APPROACH
Christine will continue to build on her extensive, empowering, low-tech English language teaching experience and training. The best plan will differ in every circumstance and Christine will work with client organisations to tailor make it. Broadly speaking, there are four approaches English in Development can take:

A) Curriculum development generally looks at helping an organisation have the most appropriate courses and materials for its learners

B) Training development is about the organisation having people who have materials and abilities to train teachers

C) Teaching is about helping teachers understand and use course materials

D) Coaching is about supporting the individuals providing leadership or training

English in Development is designed around engagement sessions, bundled into packets, which themselves are bundled into packages. Any combination can be arranged, with variable timing and contents. Some involve more or less preparatory and follow-up work. Here are some typical examples:

Session:
- a 3 hour class training trainers before they train teachers attending a residential course
- a 1 hour coaching session with a team leader

Packet:
- training a new batch of teachers to use course materials for a single year group
- writing materials and training trainers to use them to train teachers establishing the first year of a community village schooling network

Package:
- designing a whole primary school curriculum
- training all the new trainers in an informal community education initiative over 5 years

TRAVEL
Much can be done from Christine's home in Devon, including preliminary and final materials development, some training, and long term coaching. Covid-19 has encouraged the proliferation of on-line tools and familiarity with them, which Christine has already taken advantage of. However, the locally available technology amongst the groups Christine most hopes to engage, will not support distance learning (e.g. a month long residential course for 70 teachers with no day time electricity).

DETAILS
Typically, English in Development could involve:

Curriculum consulting
- 3 hour sessions
- 5 sessions in a packet over a week's visit to a client
- a package of 5 packets over a 5 week visit
- 6 hours of planning and follow-up work for every hour face-to-face, spread between the client visit and the UK

Training
- 3 hour sessions
- 5 sessions in a packet over a week's visit to a client
- a package of 5 packets over a 5 week visit
- 2 hours of planning and follow-up work on-site for every hour face-to-face (some home-based work will also be needed if training intensity is greater, e.g. 2 packets in one week)

Teaching
- 3 hour sessions, both morning and afternoon
- 10 sessions in a packet over a week's visit to a client
- a package of 5 packets over a 5 week visit
- 3 hours of planning and follow-up work on-site each evening

Coaching
- 1 hour sessions
- a packet of 10 on-line sessions over a year
- a package of support for a team of 5 trainers over a year
- equal amounts of off-line work (mainly preparation and follow-up)

COSTS

At home in Devon, Christine is rating her time as the cost of the missed opportunity to have a job that otherwise ignores her professional skills and training, i.e. £10 per hour. Whilst overseas, expected remuneration is evened out to £50 per half day including travel, but excluding rest days.

Travel costs based on Christine's prior experience suggest an average of £1,450 per trip for transport and insurance. Accommodation and subsistence expenses of £50 per day will be on top of this.

An administrative fee of £30 per packet is also needed.

PAYMENT
Global experience suggests that paying for services can increase the sense of ownership amongst clients. This initiative will make reasonable attempts to get clients to pay as much as they can afford towards its costs. Arguably though, the better able to pay they are, the less they need this particular opportunity. English in Development will focus predominantly on asking clients to pay for the in-country costs when travelling (Christine is experienced and willing to stay in quite basic facilities). She will also seek a locally appropriate remuneration for her work from home in the UK (e.g. £1 per hour for on-line coaching).

DONATIONS
When relevant costs are bundled and then broken back down differently, the following donation amounts will approximately support:
£3            costs for 1 coaching session
£10         1 hour writing training materials
£50         a night's stay plus food in a local hotel
£100      a day's work or travel outside the UK
£200      to write the training manual for one year group
£260      coaching a trainer for a year on-line
£500      1 week training teachers in their own country
£700      accommodation and food for a 2 week trip
£1,450  travel-related costs for 1 trip outside the UK
£1,635  non-travel-related costs for a 2 week trip of curriculum planning and training trainers for 1 primary school year group, including preparation and follow-up
£2,900  to deliver a whole package of training materials and on-line trainer training for a village primary school network covering 5 year groups

NB: These are notional and not specific commitments, i.e. you will not be sponsoring specific individuals or activities.

Christine is likely to prioritise this initiative, but is unlikely to manage much more than half her time overseas or preparing and following up, given her other commitments. If she can't spend all the funding raised for English in Development,  it may:
a) be applied to other English language projects of Christine's listed by the Organiser in GoFundMe (search Ditch+Townsend or contact him for details), or
b) fundraising may be suspended until less than double the combined targets remain across all Christine's projects, or
c) Christine may use it to pay for the services of a colleague on similar terms, or
d) it may be donated by Christine to charities with a similar vision.

UPDATES
Christine will pass on updates at least quarterly to publish via GoFundMe here.