Visit to Go Vap Orphanage June 2015

On the 14th of June, the members of the Go Vap Orphanage Committee and other BIS students paid a visit to the Go Vap Orphanage. The orphanage is located in a Pagoda and some of the 60 or so children are mentally or physically disabled or are critically ill. Some of the children with the more severe disabilities are permanently bedbound and most of their conditions are incurable, specifically the children who have hydrocephalus (a build-up of fluid in the brain).   However, lots of the children there are healthy too.  We go to the orphanage once or twice a term to take fun activities and games to play with the children there.

We started off the day by handing out various instruments to the children and coordinated them into a large circle in order to carry out a musical activity. The instruments that we used were purchased through funds that were generously provided by the PTG. Miss Tappin kindly coordinated this activity by creating a rhythm using her instrument and changing the tempo or volume of the sound she was making, which the children then imitated. Everyone was very enthusiastic and captivated with this activity and a few of the children even volunteered to lead the group by taking over Miss Tappin’s role, playing their instruments in front of the whole group. It was amazing to see the children so engaged and involved in the activity; everybody came together which allowed us to feel a greater sense of connectedness with one another. The remainder of the day was spent colouring in pages with images of different instruments with their Vietnamese names and English translations. Some of the students had the opportunity to visit the younger children at the orphanage, which was something that was greatly enjoyed. Overall, the day was a tremendous success and we cannot wait for future visits to the orphanage during the next academic year.

 As we are reaching the end of our journey as a committee, we plan to find new replacements to take our positions in the committee for next year. As there will be new faces in the sixth form common room, our goal is to recruit new year 12 members and pass on our skills and knowledge on this committee to them. We are sure that they will benefit greatly from this experience if they choose to do so and we hope there will be many who are interested in joining.

 The Go Vap Orphanage Committee