Get to Know the Committees of Team Vietnam

CULTURAL COMMITTEE

 

 

The cultural committee is responsible for helping break down cultural barriers while we are in Vietnam.  We wish them luck in overcoming the language barrier!  They will be in charge of games, opening and closing ceremonies, the music program, and conducting oral histories with the families in country.  In preparation, they will be researching and teaching our team about the local history and customs of Vietnam and what is and is not culturally acceptable, as well as gathering game/sports equipment to donate to the village. 

 

 

VOCATIONAL COMMITTEE

 

 

The vocational committee is in charge of teaching the women/older students in Vietnam to make soap.  Through this, they will be helping create successful small enterprises.  In order to do this, they will (hopefully!) learn how to make soap themselves, and will need to fundraise to cover the starting expenses.

 

MICROENTERPRISE COMMITTEE 

 

The microenterprise committee is in charge of helping the people of Vietnam create a small businesses.  The people of Song Cau have chosen to create a Fish Sauce Project.  In country, the committee will teach lessons on microenterprise and create a community governing board.  In preparation, they will raise funds for microcredit loans to distribute in the area.

 

 

EDUCATION COMMITTEE

 

 

While in Song Cau, the education committee with be responsible for teaching the kids basic English Lessons, carrying-out the Mondo Art Project (a global art exchange which Real Life is helping with), and working together with the local village kids to produce a mural.  In preparation, they will be responsible for collecting school supplies to create school kits for the kids.

 

 

HEALTH COMMITTEE

 

 

The health committee has a big job in country.  They will be teaching maturation (if Britnie is to be believed, this is supposedly fun in other countries...), training medical assistants, teaching group/home/classroom health lessons (hygiene, first aid, etc), and conducting a community needs assessment.  Beforehand, they will be fundraising health supplies to stock the clinic.

 

 

CONSTRUCTION COMMITTEE

 

The construction committee is headed by a few lucky individuals who are part of multiple committees, but every member of our team is part of it.  Together, we will help build homes for villagers who currently live in mud and thatched roof homes as well as help repair the local school.

 

days until takeoff: 164 and counting!!

Cambodia's January Retreat

The Cambodian team met on January 11 for their retreat at Kelly's house. Even though the roads were bad and snow was falling, most of the team was able to make it. Kelly was a great host, and we started off the retreat with some food and mingling.
We got to learn about some of our team's local service sites. Sarah W. is working at a school and doing an after school program. Brooke is also working at a school as well as an after school program, and Nate is visiting the elderly in their homes and visit with them.
As we broke into committees, we were able to get a ton accomplished. The medical team discussed possible lesson plan topic like food safety and hygiene. They also brainstormed possible projects like sanitary pads. The cultural committee was planning on participating in the Mondo Art Party on January 14. They also discussed the opening ceremonies and what dances we might do, (i.e Gangnam Style?). The education committee talked about how to help the team make the best lesson plans, and are going to make a list to sign  up for different topics that we can teach.  Micro-enterprise committee talked about having hanging gardens as a possible project. They also planned a lot of research in preparation for the February meeting.  The vocational committee talked about building a playground at the school as a possible project using tires swings or a rock wall.
Our service project got postponed to another day because of the storm. We were going to to the homeless shelter to serve breakfast. We did get to create file folder games that we will be taking with us to Cambodia. During our meeting we discussed possible fund raising ideas for all of our projects. Some of our projects may include: Playground, chicken farm, catfish pond, and bio sand filters in the homes. The chicken farm and the catfish pond would be cared for by the school and all profits would go back to the school as well.
Team Cambodia got a lot done at this meeting, and we are all super excited to do our local service hours, fundraising and read the two books Kelly gave us for home work, " First they Killed my Father" and "When Broken Glass Floats". These two books are about the Killing Fields  the Khmer Rouge, the mass genocide in Cambodia in the 1970's These books will teach us why the people of Cambodia need our help.

Meet the Vietnam Gang

We kicked off our journey by getting to know each other at the January meeting with a game of two truths and a lie.  This game taught us that we have more broken bones than actual people in the group, to beware because when angry, others have been known to cut off people's fingers, and to leave sock monkeys off of our packing lists.  After discussing a few matters of business, we were assigned to our committees, where we played a no-talking-no-touching-cup-stacking game. It was challenging, but also quite comical!

Each committee broke off to decide what they need to do before take off.  For example, the education committee made plans to go to Real Life in Salt Lake's Mondo Art project activity on Monday, which was a big hit.  Those who went got to try foods from all over the world, see pictures drawn by kids in Napal, and make our own art which will be sent to all the countries Youthlinc is visiting this year. 

If any of you are interested, there is a fundraiser dinner at Cafe Trang on February 20th from 6-8 pm.  It will be a celebratory evening with dinner, dragon dancing, and a brief explanation of our planned service in country.  The cost is $30 per person, but as always, whatever you are willing to donate is much appreciated.  The money raised this night will go to fund in country projects such as microloans and school supplies for the kids.  The address is 307 West 200 South, Salt Lake City.  RSVP by February 15th to office@youthlinc.org or call 801-467-4417.

The meeting ended with a couple of last words from group leader Britnie.  She explained to us that the no-talking-no-touching-cup-stacking game we played at the beginning will be similar to our experiences in Vietnam. It is going to be challenging and frustrating because of the language barrier, but as we learned in the game, many hands makes light work, and as a team, we will have the most amazing experience and learn to love each other and the people of Song Cau.

Just a reminder for the team, you should be half-way done with your service hours by the February meeting.  We cannot wait to see you at the retreat! And don't forget your food assignment.

Until next time,

Alyssa and Carly

Team Peru Brings in the Year with a Retreat to Remember

As team Peru set off on the New Year, we gathered together on January 4th at the Youthlinc office to head  for our retreat in the beautiful mountains. One of our team members Rin and her family were kind enough to host us at their cabin for the weekend and we couldn't be more grateful for the beautiful snowy lodgings we were provided with, bunk beds and all. We arrived at about 7 at night, and in about 7 degree weather, which was a little chilly on the snowmobile ride up, but we all safely arrived ready to have a great time together and get a lot done.

Our first order of business was to warm up closely followed by our monthly team meeting.Within our meeting we discussed our ideas to fund raise for supplies to take with us to Peru, heard about some of the main service in our group, as well as breaking out into our committees. Our committees this year are truly amazing and hope accomplish a lot. The Medical Committee is working on figuring out what kinds of things they would like to accomplish before they leave and planning for the medical aspect of the Peru trip. Our Vocational Committee worked together to plan for gathering fabric and supplies for the hand crank sewing machines we will be bringing down with us, and worked on a project making reusable feminine pads.

After being so productive in our break out sessions, it was time for the team to kick back have some fun and do some bonding, and what brings more bonding than a ping pong tournament?  Our doubles ping pong champions were Michelle Moynihan and Stephen Buma, but our MVP of the night was defiantly our wonderful Mark Burningham who showed amazing paddle control and a great sense of coordination. The activities ran long into the night and by the time everyone got to bed it was nearly 2 in the morning.
Our night was filled with a lot of fun, as well as the chance to really get to know our team and prepare for the adventure to come.
Despite our late night we were up bright and early the next morning. We had an amazing breakfast of bagels and muffins along with other delicious snacks left over from the night before.

We then got down to our service projects. Some made tied fleece blankets (with some of the wackiest patterns ever to be seen) and put together folders to take down to teach the kids about basic numbers and letter.
 Others worked on cutting out fabric for out reusable feminine pad that we will take down with us and teach the women there how to make. These projects were a big hit last year and the goal this year is to have more than enough for all of the women.

 Others still were doing all they could to stay awake after the amazing time we had the night before. All in all we got so much done in the morning. We made many blankets and folders and cut out lots of supplies for our projects.

Team Peru started the year off with a bang at our retreat and man did we get a lot done. Our team is looking forward to our Year Service and we are very excited that we get to spend it together in our Youtlinc Family

Happy New Year from Team Peru!

New Years and New Beginnings!

Despite hail, wind, snow, and sleet, members of the 2013 Thailand team surged ahead to accomplish the daunting task of preparing for our upcoming adventure in July. In order to wade past the first name basis and swim into "deeper" waters we started out with a little a game of question ball, the questions either varied from outlandish to simple and we had a blast learning that team leader Carson would like to name her fictitious yacht, "My Yacht". Team leader Bobby then gave us all a much needed reminder about finding a main service site,  if you haven't found one yet, please do!

After breaking up into our committees, members dug deep in order to learn more about Thailand and plan ahead for upcoming jobs and activities. Ken, the team mentor over the cultural committee introduced several Thai novelties to his group, the list included a bamboo instrument, several sarongs, and most importantly his own personal pair of Muay Thai shorts. Nothing speaks Thai more than a pair of kickboxing shorts! Members of the vocational group discussed the idea of hanging gardens that would protect crops from floods that regularly devastated the area. The education and medical committees both diligently debated over ideas to better serve the Moken community, and as the collaboration went on, one could feel the excitement levels in the building rise a few notches just by talking about it. All in all, it seems like everything is coming together quite nicely.

Team mentor Ken said, "We need to stop thinking in a state of mind of wanting to be at Thailand and serving, but in a state of mind where we realize we ARE going to Thailand." I agree, and can't think of a better way to say it other than that. We ARE going to Thailand!

Until we write again about our team retreat on February 8-9,
Thailand team bloggers Emily Kwok and Itzak Leifler are signing out.

2013 Service Year off to a record breaking start

The Record Breaking 2013 Youthlinc Family!

Applications, sponsorship season, and General Orientation are behind us. Our six Service Year teams (Cambodia, Guatemala, Kenya, Peru, Thailand, and our new site, Vietnam) and our Friends & Family Team to Vietnam are meeting in December to begin the local service, international service planning, and excitement of Youthlinc's fourteenth year of operation.

It is a year of breaking records: a record 170 students are enrolled on our Service Year teams, with 46 mentors (adult professionals) guiding them. Since no student can be accepted without a sponsor, we have been able to raise $110,000 in new sponsorship funds in October, and we will utilize $50,000 in sponsorship funds raised at our Benefits - for a record total of $160,000 in sponsorship investment in the service ethic of our student participants.

These students will also break the record with a minimum of 15,000 hours of required local service contributed this school year. Students earn their sponsorships through their local service. Each Youthlinc student will write a thank you note to their sponsor in December, the beginning of what we hope will be a great relationship through communication about our intense - and intensely rewarding - Service Year.

Our Friends & Family team to Vietnam this year is also our largest ever: 40.  More than half of the team members are alums, so this team is truly meeting its original purpose: to allow an additional international service leadership experience for our alumni and to allow students and mentors who cannot participate in our Service Year (for whatever reason) to have a quality international service experience. Friends & Family teams plan all the service activities that our Service Year teams do, but no local service is required. No student sponsorships are available for participation in this team.

At December team meetings, participants get to know each other better, learn more about the international site, and the tasks ahead in each of our international service committees: education, community health, microenterprise, vocational training, cultural exchange. If they haven't already, they will be selecting the committee on which they will have a leadership role.

Another very important part of our December meetings for students in our Service Year: selecting their main local service site where they will contribute at least half their required hours, participating in hands-on service with a genuinely needy population. This year, the service of each student on every Service Year team will be celebrated on our new Local Service Blog. Every team meeting will include a focus on and reflection upon the local service participants are doing.

In January, teams have a social and a service project. In February, committees start delegating, researching, and planning their international service. March is our Traveling Healthy Clinic at the University of Utah Travel Clinic - an opportunity for all participants to learn about recommended vaccinations and other issues of staying healthy in an underdeveloped country. April and May team meetings provide additional opportunities for committees to put the final touches on their international service planning, practice their lessons, and receive feedback from their team members. During these months, teams often plan fundraisers for project funds in-country.

Before they know it, the June or July packing meeting is happening. Team members bring all donated items, from shoes to medical, hygiene, dental, and school supplies and pack them in Youthlinc duffels to bring with them on their international service trips to impoverished villages.  

The Service Year goes quickly, mostly because people are busy doing so much good locally and internationally. Every Service Year provides its own unique adventures, but many things are always the same: the culture of service, the incredible local and international service accomplishments, and the transformation of  a group of strangers who grow to become lifelong friends by becoming lifetime humanitarians together.

Youthlinc Peru 2013 Service Year team

Youthlinc creates lifetime humanitarians & we have the research to prove it

The Youthlinc mission is the creation of lifetime humanitarians. Our intense local and international Service Year requires students to serve locally, take a leadership role in planning international service. We use strategies of student leadership, mentoring, cooperative and project based learning, and hands on service to ensure we accomplish our mission.

Each year, we survey our incoming class of students (160 this year) on their service involvement. Depending on survey year, only 5-20% claim once-a-month service.

Every three years, we survey our alums. Depending on survey year, we have seen anywhere from 60-93% of our alumni report once-a-month service. We are in the middle of a survey right now. 75% of the almost 300 alums who have taken the survey so far report once-a-month service. Quite a jump in service involvement. Alums directly relate their service commitment to the Youthlinc Service Year.

In 13 years, and 1500 alums, Youthlinc students have contributed 115,000 hours of local service in Utah. As the program has grown to its current annual enrollment, 15,000 hours of service will be rendered by Youthlinc students annually.

This year we also asked our 2012 Service Year students and mentors to rate their progress on key program goals: increases in leadership ability, ability to work with a group to accomplish a goal, ability to successful undertake complex projects.

We also asked our mentors (8-10 adult professionals who work with each team all school year and travel with our groups) to rate Youthlinc in key areas.

The results of our most recent survey are below:

Mentor feedback: