{"id":12853,"date":"2025-10-03T11:53:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/?p=12853"},"modified":"2025-12-13T16:43:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:43:35","slug":"volunteer-update-luke-hogan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/volunteer-update-luke-hogan\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteer Update \u2013 Luke Hogan"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"12853\" class=\"elementor elementor-12853\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-5b26bef elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no\" data-id=\"5b26bef\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-71095bc\" data-id=\"71095bc\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3a7b316 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3a7b316\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Volunteer Story \u2013 Luke Hogan<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-299a568 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no\" data-id=\"299a568\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-427d2f8\" data-id=\"427d2f8\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1542659 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1542659\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Luke Hogan spent 6 weeks over the summer in Ethiopia. His first three weeks were at the Montessori teacher training institute and Women\u2019s Empowerment Centre run by the Daughters of Charity in Sodo and his second three weeks were at the Ambo Lazarist Deaf School. Luke helped the Montessori teachers revise for their exams and practiced conversational English with the kindergarten teachers. Moving to the Women\u2019s Empowerment Centre he taught intensive English daily to full classes. While in Ambo Luke taught English classes to up to 39 teachers and 54 students. Some of the teachers were from the deaf school across the road and he had a sign language interpreter in the classroom to assist.<\/p><p>Luke said <em>\u201cthe teachers did 5 hours of English lessons a day and by our last lesson it was amazing to see the progress they had made and their increased confidence in speaking English. The fact that these teachers showed up every day and spent 5 hours a day practicing English, their 3rd language, while on their summer holidays was even more surprising and showed a level of interest\/willingness to learn I had never seen before! I still can&#8217;t believe the level of gratitude that the teachers and students had for my lessons despite it being such a small amount of time from my summer holidays. When leaving they gave me a cultural outfit including long legged bottoms, a long-sleeved shirt in their Provincial colours, a Jebena (a traditional coffee pot) and a coffee set. Ethiopia was an amazing experience, and they couldn&#8217;t have made me feel more welcome and at home in the short time\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0there.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-8d0ec5d elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no\" data-id=\"8d0ec5d\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7827aa8\" data-id=\"7827aa8\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-dac27cc elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"dac27cc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1016\" height=\"607\" src=\"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/luke-2025.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-12855\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/luke-2025.jpg 1016w, https:\/\/vlm.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/luke-2025-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/vlm.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/luke-2025-768x459.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1016px) 100vw, 1016px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\"><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-410064e elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no\" data-id=\"410064e\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-b095c63\" data-id=\"b095c63\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5ecb935 elementor-widget elementor-widget-spacer\" data-id=\"5ecb935\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"spacer.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-spacer-inner\"><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-11d52bf elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no\" data-id=\"11d52bf\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-4303f0a\" data-id=\"4303f0a\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-665e47f elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"665e47f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Share this article<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5b38a23 elementor-grid-0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-wpr-sharing-buttons\" data-id=\"5b38a23\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"wpr-sharing-buttons.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"wpr-sharing-buttons elementor-grid wpr-sharing-official wpr-sharing-label-off wpr-sharing-icon-tr wpr-sharing-label-tr\"><div class=\"elementor-grid-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/volunteer-update-luke-hogan\/\" class=\"wpr-sharing-icon wpr-sharing-facebook-f\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\"><\/i><\/a><\/div><div class=\"elementor-grid-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/volunteer-update-luke-hogan\/\" class=\"wpr-sharing-icon wpr-sharing-twitter\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\"><\/i><\/a><\/div><div class=\"elementor-grid-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/volunteer-update-luke-hogan\/&title=Volunteer Update \u2013 Luke Hogan&summary=Volunteer Story \u2013 Luke Hogan Luke Hogan spent 6 weeks over the summer in Ethiopia. His first three weeks were at the Montessori teacher training institute and Women\u2019s Empowerment Centre run by the Daughters of Charity in Sodo and his second three weeks were at the Ambo Lazarist Deaf School. Luke helped the Montessori teachers revise for their exams and practiced conversational English with the kindergarten teachers. Moving to the Women\u2019s Empowerment Centre he taught intensive English daily to full classes. While in Ambo Luke taught English classes to up to 39 teachers and 54 students. Some of the teachers were from the deaf school across the road and he had a sign language interpreter in the classroom to assist. Luke said \u201cthe teachers did 5 hours of English lessons a day and by our last lesson it was amazing to see the progress they had made and their increased confidence in speaking English. The fact that these teachers showed up every day and spent 5 hours a day practicing English, their 3rd language, while on their summer holidays was even more surprising and showed a level of interest\/willingness to learn I had never seen before! I still can&#8217;t believe the level of gratitude that the teachers and students had for my lessons despite it being such a small amount of time from my summer holidays. When leaving they gave me a cultural outfit including long legged bottoms, a long-sleeved shirt in their Provincial colours, a Jebena (a traditional coffee pot) and a coffee set. Ethiopia was an amazing experience, and they couldn&#8217;t have made me feel more welcome and at home in the short time\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0there.\u201d Share this article&source=https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/volunteer-update-luke-hogan\/\" class=\"wpr-sharing-icon wpr-sharing-linkedin-in\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fab fa-linkedin-in\"><\/i><\/a><\/div><div class=\"elementor-grid-item\"><a href=\"mailto:?subject=Volunteer Update \u2013 Luke Hogan&body=https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/volunteer-update-luke-hogan\/\" class=\"wpr-sharing-icon wpr-sharing-envelope\" title=\"\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fas fa-envelope\"><\/i><\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-9abc443 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default wpr-particle-no wpr-jarallax-no wpr-parallax-no wpr-sticky-section-no\" data-id=\"9abc443\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-cda4fd2\" data-id=\"cda4fd2\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volunteer Story \u2013 Luke Hogan Luke Hogan spent 6 weeks over the summer in Ethiopia. His first three weeks were at the Montessori teacher training institute and Women\u2019s Empowerment Centre run by the Daughters of Charity in Sodo and his second three weeks were at the Ambo Lazarist Deaf School. Luke helped the Montessori teachers revise for their exams and practiced conversational English with the kindergarten teachers. Moving to the Women\u2019s Empowerment Centre he taught intensive English daily to full classes. While in Ambo Luke taught English classes to up to 39 teachers and 54 students. Some of the teachers were from the deaf school across the road and he had a sign language interpreter in the classroom to assist. Luke said \u201cthe teachers did 5 hours of English lessons a day and by our last lesson it was amazing to see the progress they had made and their increased confidence in speaking English. The fact that these teachers showed up every day and spent 5 hours a day practicing English, their 3rd language, while on their summer holidays was even more surprising and showed a level of interest\/willingness to learn I had never seen before! I still can&#8217;t believe the level of gratitude that the teachers and students had for my lessons despite it being such a small amount of time from my summer holidays. When leaving they gave me a cultural outfit including long legged bottoms, a long-sleeved shirt in their Provincial colours, a Jebena (a traditional coffee pot) and a coffee set. Ethiopia was an amazing experience, and they couldn&#8217;t have made me feel more welcome and at home in the short time\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0there.\u201d Share this article<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-twentyfive","category-ethiopia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12853"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13232,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12853\/revisions\/13232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vlm.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}