Most people already know our story, and many of you will have visited our community and witnessed it first hand. Nobody here is poor but from time to time everyone needs a hand up. We try and make sure that anything we do is sustainable and not just reactionary. Our idea is that by encouraging and supporting the local community to learn English and put a higher value on education, that they will have more opportunities. Tourism is fast becoming a part of everyday life for a village that use to rely on fishing and there are many opportunities for people, we want to help our neighbors and community be able to take advantage of those opportunities and make sure that the tourists and the industry have a positive impact on their lives. One constant has been helping our neighbors that want to practice English, and we are fast approaching our fourth year since we first started. Every Saturday and Sunday the children wait outside the gate and when it opens they run in, they often arrive up to an hour before we start and are genuinely eager to learn. It is so easy here for education to slip down the list of priorities but these children choose to come every week without fail.We try to make each week fun with our main focus on encouraging further studies. Four years ago 'hello' and 'whats your name' was the extent of communication between the children and the tourists, today you can happily have a conversation with many. We try to find interesting and exciting ways to keep them motivated every week and always celebrate special occasions and holidays, and every year we put on a trip for those that have attended throughout the year, this year we want to take them to the zoo to see many animals they have never seen before, we will play games and have lunch before returning to the village. Recently we have also been part of a new group made up of local people to promote and develop tourism in the village, last week we gave out 20 bins to local businesses and gave a presentation along with some training, at the meeting we were asked if we could give specific English lessons to business owners to help them communicate with the tourists, so we will be starting a new tailored 12 week course for 30 people in March. The money we raise goes towards these projects and will part fund:

Coaches to the zoo,

Entrance to the zoo,

Lunch,

Materials for the new lessons including printing and exercises,

pens, pencils, notebook and dictionary for all those attending

Expenses for our Vietnamese teacher.

The trip to the zoo will be a rare memorable treat that we hope will encourage them to keep studying hard, and the English lessons will go along way to helping those that have businesses to profit from the tourists so that its not just the rich getting richer and the people who live here can actually benefit. If anyone can give a small amount it would mean so much and make a real difference, please help us to make it happen. On behalf of all those you will be helping Thank you.