Nurturing Learning Communities in a Time of Crisis

Dear Kind Donors and Supporters, 

Thank you for your generous contributions over the past few months and years. This project, “Nurturing Learning Communities in a Time of Crisis,” is intended to provide long-term follow-up attention and care to young leaders in Asia who have previously taken any of the courses or trainings we offer in SENS—our School of English for Engaged Social Service. For us, engaging with participants in a new class or workshop is always potentially the beginning of a long-term relationship. We don’t see such participants as customers who receive skills training and then say good-bye. We prefer to think of our constituents as friends with whom we set off on a journey together, a journey of making the world right, or at least as right as it can be. For us that means taking care of everyone and everything! And (against the cynicism) we know that even little steps in that direction matter!

Who does this project benefit specifically? First, it benefits any of the alumni of our in-person or online classes, as well as of our workshops and trainings. We work mostly with educators, religious or community leaders, and young people working for social change from a very large number of countries across Asia. The largest group is made up of alumni of our annual 3-month residential SENS course over the last 11 years. The second group consists of alumni of our workshops in the Thai border town of Mae Sot over the past 3 years. They are mostly teachers and young adults who have fled their home country of Myanmar for the relative safety of a Thai border town. A third group are outstanding graduates of the SENS 3-month course who show a high aptitude for peer-counseling, leadership, and English communication, and who wish to gain the skills needed to help carry on the SENS programs or similar efforts into the future. This last group we call Apprentice Leaders in Sustainability or ALPS, and members of this group are now critical to the functioning and continuity of all SENS programs.

We have a firm belief, supported by much evidence, that the most effective world changers arise from among the masses of ordinary people. Such people not only have experienced many of the heaviest challenges first-hand, but often demonstrate an unwavering integrity in responding to them. Below we share examples of some of the developments involving the people we support through this project:

1. Our Upcoming Program in the Border Town of Mae Sot

A priority for us this Fall is to continue our support for Myanmar migrant communities in Mae Sot, Thailand. This year we plan to set up a classroom there from September to November to provide language classes and emotional support, to strengthen connections and help build a support system within the Myanmar teacher community in this border town. It will be a safe space for our teacher alumni and new friends to visit, study with us, share our stories and dreams, heal from past experiences, build mutual understanding, and think about how we can collaborate on next steps. We are now still raising funds to execute our plans for this 2026 training, which will require roughly $15,000 USD for 3 months of work. A special GlobalGiving campaign on July 15^th called July Bonus Day will provide bonus funds to any donation of $100 and more. The campaign begins at 10:00 am (New York Time) July 15^th and extends for only 24 hours! We will appreciate any size of donation, or even simply sharing with others about our project! Thank you!

In connection with the Mae Sot teacher training, Lien (nickname), a Vietnamese ALPS team member, applied and received assistance from a local grant for her travel and living expenses to support our work with the Myanmar teacher training in this 2026 season. Lien started working with us as a tutor in SENS 2025 and has continued working with us on our major projects. She is now a core team member in the upcoming Mae Sot program. We believe she will bring unique strength to the team as a woman who is also an excellent English teacher and supportive listener; she will be able to work closely with the female participants in our training.

      2. Activities and Successes of Individual ALPS Members

Adity (nickname), our only Indian ALPS team member so far, is developing pilot workshops and sessions for underprivileged children in her homeland (Darjeeling, West Bengal, India), using what she has learned from two consecutive seasons working with the SENS program. Like Lien, she has had two seasons to learn about engaging language teaching methods, Co-Counseling, understanding the difference between power-over and power sharing movements and relationships, journaling to find the silver lining of our experiential dark clouds, and more. She aims to conduct these workshops in both private and government schools in her area to measure the impact of transformative learning on the students, then develop a curriculum and scale it up into a full-fledged program. She would like to have reliable data before approaching donors and calling for more extensive support. 

Au (nickname), another Vietnamese member of our team, and a key support person for the program, has just finished a study trip organized by our South Korean partner organization. It was a rich experience for him to learn about Korean history and how our Korean friends have brought their Zen Buddhist traditions into a beneficial relationship with modern Korean society. The level of humanitarian work the Jungto Society does in South Korea and internationally is astounding, supported almost entirely by volunteers. Au had the chance to visit and learn from many models of sustainable living in South Korea, and the role of Buddhist temples in encouraging local people to take up such alternatives.

      3. University Admissions and Scholarships

One way that we offer material support to our alumni is by providing them with reference letters when they apply to universities or scholarship programs. While we encourage all our students to work in meaningful ways for change, the choice of exactly what they do is entirely theirs. Some of them seek further study for the skills, broader perspectives, and credibility they gain from university or other programs. Our Director, Ted Mayer, has found himself responding to ever more frequent requests from our alumni for reference letters. In fact we have been very satisfied by the number of our alumni who applied and then were admitted to good universities and/or who received scholarships to support their study. One of the first was Mi Bu (nickname), an early ALPS member from Mon State in Myanmar, who received a scholarship to join the MA program on Human Rights at the University of Arizona. She has just successfully completed that program, and is planning to follow up with another US fellowship program supporting young leaders from around the world. Paung (nickname), also an ALPS member from Myanmar, was admitted to Chiang Mai University in Thailand earlier this year and received a scholarship from local humanitarian organizations to complete her undergraduate degree there with a major in Humanities and Sustainability. Both Mi Bu and Paung had many years of experience in working in the humanitarian field in their respective localities before joining SENS and now these university and fellowship programs.

These successes are not limited to ALPS members. Mi Mi (nickname), a member of the Christian Lisu community in Myanmar, was admitted and received a partial scholarship to Parami University in Myanmar. And Mee Mee (nickname), also from Myanmar, just received admission and a scholarship to study in the MA in Expressive Arts Therapy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, one of the most respected universities in Thailand. Nhu (nickname) from Vietnam applied to the International Youth Initiative Program (YIP), a 10-month program in Sweden to foster a holistic understanding of humanity’s current challenges and to encourage entrepreneurship as part of the solution. Admission is very selective, and we’re delighted Nhu was just accepted following her interview. 

We are grateful for you, our donors and supporters, who enabled us first to welcome these students to the SENS program and now to provide strong references and other support as needed. We want to congratulate all these students on their good work and thank you for your donations that enable us to extend non-remunerated help of this kind.

      4. Online Follow-Up Co-Counseling Class (Level II) for SENS Alumni

One of the core practices in all our SENS work is to train and support participants to listen effectively to each other and to their loved ones, while also exploring how to use such listening partnerships to benefit their own growth. The guidelines we introduce for good listening are based on those of the  Re-evaluation Counseling Communities, but we try to draw out the essentials of these practices in ways that are flexible and appropriate to each local context. We find for example that most people can learn to avoid interrupting each other, thus giving another person the chance to tell the full story of how they are feeling or what they have been through. Most people can learn to refrain from giving advice, but instead to trust that when people can express themselves fully in a safe and trusting environment, their thinking often becomes clear enough to solve their own problems.

SENS Director Ted Mayer is currently leading a six-session online class for any alumni of our 3-month programs with sufficient interest to commit to the six sessions. This class gives alumni from different SENS cohorts a chance to meet each other, provides weekly practice in listening, and offers the opportunity to introduce more advanced techniques and perspectives. Participants in this class are encouraged to donate the equivalent of $3 per class when their circumstances allow this. Your donations allow us to provide educational services of this kind in classes for students who cannot afford to compensate us for our teaching at market rates.

All of these developments give us hope for a stronger network of young adults across Asia working together for a positive change in education and humanitarian response in the region and beyond. Thank you for accompanying us on this journey! 

With deep gratitude, 

The SENS Work Team