Recently a team of bloggers from the ieatishootipost blogging community led by its founder, Dr Leslie Tay, visited Goducate’s literacy centers in Sabah where over 2000 children are learning to read and write. One of the bloggers who calls himself “Holydrummer” wrote an interesting blog about this trip.
For the full report please read www.ieatishootipost.sg
I quote some snippets from his blog that he dedicated to the brave volunteers, teachers and children in Sabah.
The boat ride was a short by significant journey, during which I couldn’t help but brood over a glaring juxtaposition that stuck our like a sore thumb. That is, the sheer proximity of this village (and all the subsequent ones) to normal civilization. Just a few miles away lies the apparent widespread availability of basic forms of accommodation and here they are in the slums subject to insanitary living conditions?
We briefly took shelter in a hut where the children are cramped into three classrooms. I would have been turned off! But here they are, in the open, subject to the storms of life, acquiring basic education in their quest to attain knowledge and gain wisdom. They would probably risk a landslide to continue studying. Guilt filled me at that instant and I have to admit that I have taken my education for granted. At that moment in time, I wished our students in Singapore were here to see this for themselves to truly understand…
Our of the four (villages) we visited, this village left the deepest and most indelible impression. It would be an understatement to say that the living conditions are absolutely not fit for human beings at all….
The gravity of their situation had me questioning repeatedly the logic of it all…. At the end point, I realized we can only take it one step at a time. We chose to focus on fostering education through the auspices of Goducate.
“I conclude with a quote from Goducate’s visionary founder, Dr Paul Choo: ‘We are the voice of the poor.’
Their voices need to be heard. Go and tell the world.”
with permission from ieatishootipost