As part of its goal to help Asians help themselves, Goducate has started a new program to train existing leaders to be better leaders. The target groups for this training are community, education, government, and religious leaders—especially those who are already recognised as leaders in their respective fields. There are few leadership programs tailored for the needs of those who are already recognised as leaders. In Asia most leadership programs train men who aspire to be leaders. With leaders who already have much experience to share, the method of training most suitable for them is a “forum”—where they gather to listen to experts and then share their experiences in the forum and learn from one another. Our new program is called Asia Forum for Leaders.
Goducate launched this program on Sept 20 by holding a mini-forum in the Goducate Training Center, Iloilo, Philippines, for 14 barangay (village) leaders.
The next day 90 church leaders from Iloilo Province gathered for a 3-day forum. There were sessions on leadership planning, strategy, and implementation, and practical sessions on livelihood projects (eg. vermicomposting, detergent making) for their communities. Those who were interested were given enough African night crawlers to start their own vermicomposting projects. The main speakers were myself from Singapore, Leo Decinal from Laguna, and Jeru Samilo from Iloilo.
The feedback from the leaders was very positive, and another forum has been planned for 150 church leaders in Feb 2017.
There are plans to run another training session in November for 30 town mayors (and their heads of departments) in the province of Laguna (which is south of Manila).
We believe that one of the best ways to help Asians help themselves is to train better leaders for Asia!
