With travel halted in the past two years, the Skillseed team pivoted and piloted a virtual Overseas Community Service Programme (OCSP) - Project Hai Khun last year with our community partner, BEAM Education Foundation (BEAM). BEAM is a non-profit educational foundation that envisions people-oriented, peaceful, and developed communities in Myanmar and Thailand, sustained by empowering local communities through comprehensive and continuous access to education.
In our 2nd year of partnership with Singapore Management University (SMU), we leveraged the unique skills and knowledge of the SMU students to plan workshops for the BEAM students. In turn, the BEAM students also exchanged cultural insights with their SMU peers.
SMU students share their heartfelt reflections after the conclusion of Project Hai Khun 2022:
Team A’s group photo
Team A by Vicky Qu
My experience with BEAM and Skillseed has been overwhelmingly enriching. Initially, when I embarked on this project, I was skeptical and nervous about my ability to facilitate discussions with an overseas community. I had only worked on local community projects and when the pandemic hit, my opportunities for overseas engagement further diminished. Therefore, I wanted to make use of this rare opportunity with Project Hai Khun to serve beyond my local community. Having no prior experience serving overseas, Skillseed was the bridge between both our communities, ensuring that all the volunteers from SMU are well-prepared and adaptable to any unpredictable circumstances in Myanmar and Thailand, as well as being able to effectively communicate with the BEAM students.
The pre-equipping sessions with Skillseed was extremely enlightening as we understood more about our host community, especially about their current political turmoil and their needs. As we zoomed into our overseas community partner, BEAM, we discussed how we can use education to empower these students even through this period of rising political tensions between Myanmar and Thailand.
A key takeaway from these sessions would be the lesson on ‘Dignity and Stereotypes’ as we learnt how to uphold dignity when conversing with people of different cultures and backgrounds. I was more aware of how our mannerisms and speech might not be effectively understood and accepted by BEAM students. However, through the roleplay by Skillseed facilitators, I understood what it means to uphold dignity and be respectful at all times when conversing with the BEAM students.
As we moved forward to our actual engagement sessions, the BEAM students were initially quite shy and reserved. I had expected it to continue like this for a while and for them to open up slowly, so I was pleasantly surprised when they warmed up to us so quickly. During our sessions, we were always encouraging the BEAM students to speak up and we also affirmed them, which really helped them to warm up to us. It was heartwarming to see those who were more quiet initially begin to speak freely and openly halfway through our sessions. It really made me see how such small actions like encouragement and affirmations go a long way to pave the way for more in-depth discussions and avid participation.
I am grateful for this whole experience and though it was hard work to plan and execute a curriculum from scratch, it warmed my heart to see the BEAM students open up and apply the skills we shared with them. I am also very appreciative of Skillseed for always checking in and encouraging us during the planning and execution of our sessions.
“I am truly thankful that my first experience serving with an overseas community went smoothly and was highly fruitful, thank you Skillseed!”
Team B by Theron Tham
Team B’s group photo
With Skillseed, we sought to provide a safe, supportive environment for our community partners in Thailand and Myanmar to be empowered and self-sufficient through life and academic skills development. The common conception of such programmes was that it essentially was a glorified, free, tuition service for BEAM students – we would provide services; and they would simply receive. This was my initial expectation of Project Hai Khun.
However, expectation often differs from reality – this time, thankfully for the better! My initial expectation of a distinct receive-give relationship was because of our lack of cultural understanding and nuances with our overseas community. Indeed, without Skillseed, this would have been the case. Throughout Project Hai Khun, Skillseed was the catalyst that transformed the project from a standard tuition programme into a more cooperative and exciting one.
In our pre-equipping sessions, Skillseed enabled us to identify our inherent assumptions and biases while introducing us to the local culture of the BEAM students, allowing us to better appreciate the challenges they faced in their everyday lives. For example, the lack of consistent electricity or the daily threat of war – which we would have never considered in our cloistered Singaporean lives. Through the pre-equipping session, I was able to ponder about my reactions to such unexpected events, allowing me to facilitate the sharing of these topics during the actual engagement sessions with maturity and empathy for the BEAM students.
Additionally, in our review sessions with Skillseed, we were able to formulate tailored workshops that conveyed content while incorporating cultural nuances, ensuring engagement with and sensitivity towards the BEAM students. This was greatly appreciated as Skillseed always ensured that our content would be engaging and easy to understand for the BEAM students, especially since the workshop sessions were held at night and virtually over Zoom – a double whammy for engagement and interactive-ness. Without their guidance, I doubt we would have been able to design an effective engagement session.
Lastly, through the consistent feedback from the Skillseed team, we were gradually able to improve the workshops to deliver targeted and effective learning content for the BEAM students. Our conversations went beyond the “work context”, expanding into personal topics which allowed us to form friendships even after the programme has ended.
In conclusion, Project Hai Khun was a stellar volunteering opportunity, where I was able to interact in-depth with the overseas community and the batch of SMU volunteers too.
“At the end of the programme, when I received a diary entry from one of the BEAM students which detailed how I had impacted his life, I realised that I was the recipient all along.”