Using English to empower Colombia’s future generations
The Bright Kites Foundation offers Colombian students from disadvantaged backgrounds an opportunity for personal and academic growth. Our aim is to send students from schools from the lowest strata neighbourhoods in Medellin, Pereira and Cali to study English in a language school in the UK for a month.
Our pilot programme ran in Summer 2019, bringing two selected students to the UK for a month.
During their time in London our BKF Ambassadors:
- Stay with British families, practising their English every day
- Take part in Bayswater College’s Junior Summer Camp (English classes, cultural activities and excursions)
- Visit universities to get a taster of higher education in the UK
- Record their experiences and create a log of their progress to take back to Colombia, enabling them to become language ambassadors
As language ambassadors, they will give a presentation about their time away, bringing materials and ideas back with the goal of promoting language learning. They will also help us decide who will receive the grant the following year.
Both students are in grade 10 and this programme will facilitate their final year at secondary school, hopefully positively impacting their final English language grades and their opportunities for further education post-secondary school.
A key objective of ours is to contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goal no. 4 – “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”