12 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday July 4, 2007 www.oakvillebeaver.com Photojournalist joins St. Lucia Learning Project By Sabrina Byrnes SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Oakville volunteers improve the lives of villagers living in poverty swimming lessons in the afternoons and the older campers are taught junior leadership roles and life skills training. The older boys will be participating in a building project this year, building a gazebo to use for their small group time, with tools that have been donated. The week prior to the camp, the teaching team works with the children of Canaries Infant School with resources that have been donated to them, and in the afternoon the team works with the teachers to help them utilize those resources with the children. Many of the teachers in St. Lucia are not qualified to be teachers at all and resort to physical means when dealing with behavioural issues. Canaries Infant School used to have one of the lowest academic test scores, but that is slowly beginning to change. This year the program is being introduced to five new schools. Bouton Combined School, Sourfriere Infant School, Fond St. Jacques School, D'Etang Combined School and Canaries Primary School. I will be volunteering with the team for the week of the teachers' workshops as well as the first week of summer camp, arriving July 8 and returning July 22. I will witness first hand the children and teachers learning how to use the different resources, see the program being presented to the new schools for the first time, and see how the children of the camp are impacted by having someone read to them or even listen to them. Many of the children are not taught to problem solve or think for themselves or even respect themselves or other people. I am looking forward to this experience, and to see how these children and teachers benefit from what the people in our local community have been doing. The camp is run out of Anderson's home in St, Lucia where she has had a family home for many years. In its fourth year, the program is becoming more accepted in the community, and relationships are beginning to form. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening for the weeks of the summer camp, a Women's Mentoring Workshop is held for the women of the village to do crafts, but mainly to have a support system and people to share their feelings and hopes with. The volunteers that I will be traveling with for the two weeks that I am there include Michelle Anderson from Oakville, Jennifer Higgins from Oakville, Jean Brown from Parry Sound, Ingrid Jack from Mansfield, Mary Ann Hutchings from Orangeville, Scott Dempster from Burlington, Mareika Lubkiewicz from Burlington and Herb Goodhoofd from Oakville. I have met a few of the volunteers before my trip and they have all welcomed me aboard the team. I am not sure what to expect besides what I've been told by some of the volunteers, such as the climate change was quite uncomfortable and seeing where the children live was a little overwhelming. There will be frequent updates on our website at www.oakvillebeaver.com as I will be transmitting daily blogs about my experiences there along with photos. Many sponsors have been a part of making The St. Lucia Learning Project a success including Air Canada Cargo, which has shipped all their learning resources for free. Wendy and Ron Hill have donated two complete learning carpets. The Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation made a donation of $1,800 so resources could be purchased, The Canadian Children's Book Centre donated five boxes of books, 100 books have been donated by Scholastic Canada, Rona Lansing on Speers has donated power tools for the older boy's building project this year and the list goes on. Campers are also in need of sponsorship to help fund their meals, crafts learning supplies, field trips and back to school kits. For further information and for a complete list of sponsors, visit www.stlucialearningproject.ca. School may be out, but the learning still continues, and even just begins for some, as a team of teachers associated with Chartwell Baptist Church head to a small community in St. Lucia, to enrich the lives of impoverished children. I will be joining the team this year as a volunteer, while documenting with pictures and words the team's efforts to achieve their mission of showing the true potential of these underprivileged children. The St. Lucia Learning Project is in its fourth year and is made up of three components: Canaries Infant School and Teacher's Workshops, Camp Sylvester and the Women's Mentoring Program. Camp Sylvester is run for four weeks in the summer for the school children between the ages of 5-18 in the community of Anse La Verdure. St. Lucia to most, is known as a tourist hot spot. But this little village is a place that the world just passes by according to Michelle Anderson, the pro- Sabrina Byrnes gram's Executive Director. The campers look forward to this experience every year just to be a part of something, and to feel that they are indeed special. The camp provides the children with two nutritious meals a day, learning programs and activities, including English and Math, drama, music, field trips, journal writing and small group time where they are encouraged to share their thoughts and feelings. The children take part in Community Involvement is what we're all about. In addition to providing community news, sports, entertainment and business 3 times a week, The Oakville Beaver newspaper takes pride in the fact that we support the organizations that make Oakville the caring community it is. 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