Kilkenny student will travel to Cambodia as a volunteer teacher

A Kilkenny college student is planning to travel to Cambodia, this summer, as part of a volunteer-led effort to provide English-language education to migrant children and adults.

Rohan Vargas, now a first year medical student at UCD, is a former Kilkenny CBS student.
As part of the UCD Volunteers Overseas (UCDVO) programme, Rohan will join a number of his fellow students on the trip to Cambodia, and a settlement of Burmese migrants along the Moei River, on the Thai-Burma border.

The MOEI Project assists in teaching English as a second language to students attending local, free community schools to a range of different ages.

Classes will be taught alongside a Cambodian teacher following a set curriculum.
Rohan’s first week as part of the project will be an intensive TEFL training course, followed by four weeks of team teaching English conversation classes with Cambodian teachers in an MOEI partner school.

Rohan and his fellow student volunteers will be expected to teach for three or four hours a day, from Monday to Friday. Classes can have from 10 to 40 students and range in age from 12 to 20.

MOEI is a project established by the Faculty of Social Science, University of Hong Kong, in 2008. It was initially formed to provide intensive English-language education for migrant children and adults from Burma located along the Moei River section of the Thai-Burma border.

Since 2008, MOEI has expanded its reach to Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and China, and is now run as an independent volunteer initiative managed by London-registered Experiential Learning Asia.

Rohan will be self-funding his flights, travel vaccinations and other expenses.
However, fundraising was part of the project, with Rohan setting up a GoFundMe appeal to raise €1,850. This is to cover €1,750: for partner programmes/ project costs, and €100 for UCDVO programme administration (third-party liability and overseas travel insurance, health and safety, monitoring and evaluation).

Rohan is delighted that this total has already been reached. “I am completely taken aback by the support I have received and I commend you all for making this opportunity possible for me,” he said. He is now excited to start his preparations for the trip.