On April 26 the Goducate music department in Laguna Province, the Philippines, held a recorder concert at the Goducate Music Learning Center. The performers were some 50 children aged about 6-12 from 10 villages around the town of Bay who are learning to play the recorder. 14 Goducate volunteers go out to the various villages to teach a total of 73 children. The concert was a means of identifying those children who might be skilled enough to learn some other musical instrument.
The three days preceding the concert were spent on intensive rehearsals, which the children really enjoyed.
The Goducate music program in Laguna has been a means of keeping children off the streets, helping them to earn school and university scholarships through their musical ability, giving those in the orchestra a chance to earn pocket money through public performances at various events, and along the way teaching all the children qualities such as discipline, diligence, patience, and teamwork. The volunteer teachers are those who have benefited from the program, and who are not helping others to help themselves.
