The Smile Ambassador gets silly with his friends at an after school program
The school year is in full swing and even though many schools in Tohoku shortened their summer holidays, they are all still struggling to get their curriculum back on schedule.
The Shine On! Smile Ambassador‘s regular visits to daycare centers and pre-schools were unaffected, but no matter how beneficial our programs are, getting access to elementary schools became quite difficult. It’s understandably difficult for a school administrator to accept offers of extracurricular activities when they are already more than a month behind on their lesson plans.
However, no challenge is too big for a Clown on a mission! We came up with some creative and effective alternatives to our normal offerings. For example, we had a number of shorter shows during lunch breaks and we visited many after-school programs. We also initiated an English language program where we added some fun (and native pronunciation) to the in-class English lessons.
These methods have paid off in several ways; we got our foot in doors that were previously closed, we “proved” the effectiveness of our programs, and most importantly, we interacted with and brought smiles to hundreds of new kids.
We are sure that the challenges up north will continue to test our creativity and will, but they only inspire us to try harder!
Check out our September photo album on Facebook!
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