Author: Clarisse

On July 5-13, 15 of Goducate Training Center’s (GTC’s) employees underwent Basic Life Support training, held in conjunction with the Philippine National Red Cross. Those who took part included the Center’s administrative and training staff, as well as those employed to work in the recreational and construction areas. The latter group are mainly people from the communities surrounding GTC, since Goducate believes that one way of helping the needy communities around us is to employ them.

The training consisted of basic skills in handling emergencies such as fractures, burns, and the results of other accidents. They learned the standard procedures of dealing with unconscious patients and of doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). They also learned different ways of bandaging, as well as of transporting the patient.

The course was tiring but enjoyable, especially the practical part. Trainees had practice time with their partners before undergoing the grading for their practical work. They had to show how to respond to different incidents.

With such training our staff should be able to respond to emergencies that might arise inside GTC. As one means of making GTC self-sufficent, the Center is open to the public, who come for the educational tours of the place or to make use of the recreational facilities. Having staff who can attend to emergencies is thus important.

We also hope that those of the staff who come from the neighboring communities will be able to pass on their skills to their communities. In addition, since they are now certified as having been trained in basic life support, they might want to respond to the government’s calls for help with emergencies.

On June 10 the Goducate Training Center (GTC) in Iloilo, Philippines, took in a new batch of students, who will be trained to be community development workers. These 42 trainees, 24 ladies and 18 men, come from different parts of the Philippines, except for 1, who is from China. They will undergo 6 months’ training in teaching English, in agriculture, in children’s education, and in community work.

They started off with an orientation week. One of their early struggles was homesickness. However, they learned to adjust and adapt with the help of their fellow trainees and GTC staff. A day’s outing on the beach before the “real stuff” enabled them to get to know each other through fun and fellowship and team-building activities.

Two days were allotted for community tours to see the places where they will be working in during their training and to talk to the people there. These tours gave them a glimpse of the culture and the potential needs of these communities. These visits also brought out the passion of these trainees to help the needy—the kind of heart GTC wants in our community development workers. They were able to shrug off the muddy roads they had to walk along during this rainy season by singing songs and enjoying each other’s company.

Some of the trainees have been struggling with a change of their body clocks to meet their daily routines that include cleaning their dorms, cooking, serving food, and dishwashing, but they do have some free time to read or to watch the news on TV and to use the recreational facilities. During weekends they have been helping GTC laborers with gardening, housekeeping, landscaping, guest relations, and work in the restaurant and canteen. The latter few activities are associated with GTC’s attempts to make the center self-sufficient by opening its facilities to paying guests

Another struggle for the trainees is to speak only in English, and not revert to Filipino dialects. One trainee, who declared his desire to improve his English and to be corrected whenever he makes a mistake, has inspired the rest to make an effort to speak English. This is important because the ability to communicate well in English could be important when they are posted to a foreign country. For those who are fluent, teaching English could be a major part of their work when they are sent out as community development workers.