Sara is a 19 year old student who has just left boarding school in the UK. During her gap year, she spent the summer volunteering at Assunta in Malaysia. She is passionate about children and as Sara’s parents are based in KL, she will continue working at Assunta during university breaks. 

Having signed up as a volunteer to teach young children, it is easy to assume that the children will be the ones learning from you. However, this statement could not be further from the truth based on my experience working at the Assunta drop-in center. The children taught me gratitude and how little it takes to be happy. Every single day as I walked through the door, I could hear the excitement as they rushed toward me, calling out “Teacher!” and there is nothing that could match that experience.

The volunteers at Assunta alongside Sister Angeline create an environment where the children are passionate to learn. Instead of a regimental structure where they simply copy and memorise, interactive methods are used. I personally loved the idea of teaching numbers and even addition using brightly coloured dots on the page as it caters for visual learners.

However, above all, the sense of community at Assunta is wonderful. Everyone is so welcoming and I immediately felt a sense of belonging. The strong bonds of friendship made in the classroom between the students are also present among the volunteers. For this reason, I thank you all for making this summer the most rewarding one I’ve ever had.