India Courage is a University of Bristol student who has been volunteering as a Jacari tutor for the past two years. She supports a Syrian girl, visiting her at school every week for a fun tutoring session.
She first discovered Jacari at the University of Bristol freshers’ fair. She told us “I have always wanted to help young girls achieve their dreams and the student who spoke to me at the freshers’ fair explained Jacari very well and inspired me to volunteer as I already had some of the skills needed to teach English language.”
Her pupil loves drawing and they often use creative games to help her learn English. They also spend time chatting and learning vocabulary around her interests, for example planets and animals.
“I have absolutely loved the relationship I have with my student after two years of tutoring together. She inspires me every week with her enthusiasm to embrace a foreign language and culture.”
India has gone above and beyond for Jacari as not only has she volunteered for two years, she has also recently fundraised for us! She took part in our “Step Forward for Jacari” challenge in May, when we asked our supporters and volunteers to complete a set number of steps over the month and raise vital funds for our tutoring programme next year.
India loves horse-riding so she had the brilliant idea to complete her steps on horseback! She covered 360km in three weeks on a horse. This was during her summer university exams but she managed to fit it all in and really enjoyed it too.
She shared her story of tutoring her pupil with her friends and family on social media and WhatsApp, with a link to her Just Giving page so they could donate. She raised an amazing £1100, and was Jacari’s top fundraiser from our “Step Forward” challenge!
When we asked why she had decided to fundraise for Jacari, India told us “through tutoring a student for two years, I realised many very keen and clever children are classed as unintelligent or lazy purely due to their lack of English language skills. So I wanted to help Jacari further close the gaps in equality of opportunity by supporting EAL children to learn the skills needed to unlock their abilities in all other areas whilst in the UK.”