Author: Grace

With the goal of helping needy Asians help themselves, the children and staff of the Goducate Children’s Home joined hands and minds in offering informal English language classes to three communities near the Home. This project was started 3-4 months ago, and the classes were to be held every Thursday and Saturday. However, initially the schedule at the Home was such that the Saturday classes could not be held very regularly. Now, with some adjustment of the time-table at the Home, we have been able to jumpstart the community program again.

The community classes are held in somebody’s house or in the open. The premises are not ideal, but they are very accessible to the children who want to attend the classes. One center is just in front of a quarry but the kids obviously do not mind sitting under the sun and using the ground as their drawing board. We hope to find more suitable premises that we can rent.

English is an important tool for getting on in the modern world, but it is not part of the local school curriculum, hence this opportunity to learn English for free is very attractive. In two of the communities the average attendance is 40-50 children.

The children at the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia are learning several livelihood skills that they can apply when they leave the Home and return to their communities. One advantage they have over other children in Cambodia is their education in English. To give them on-the-job training in perhaps starting English-learning centers, and to help others in the community, a team from the Home has been going to the neighboring areas to hold English-language classes. The team is made up of 4 teachers from the Goducate Children’s Home and 7 of the older children.

These English classes have been held in three areas, either once or twice a week.The classes are held in the open, with the students sitting on chairs provided by the residents there, who welcome the chance for their children to learn English. Most of the students are children aged 5 to 7.

The classes are not only helping the children at the Home to help themselves when they return to their communities, but they are also teaching them how to help others.

Although a handful of the children at the Cambodian Children’s Home had picked up how to play a musical instrument, such as the guitar, the recorder, or the keyboard, it was only earlier this year that an intensive music program was introduced at the Home. Three of the musicians from the Goducate music program in the Philippines spent 10 days at the Cambodian Children’s Home giving intensive lessons in the recorder, keyboard, violin, and flute. Two months later, the children had a couple of days of violin and masterclass training from a visitor from Singapore before they performed at the opening of the boys’ workshop at the Home.

The end of the 2011-2012 school year presented another opportunity for the students to give a musical performance. This ceremony was much bigger and more formal than the opening of the workshop, and held away from the Home, so tension among the children was high, reaching a peak about an hour before the start of the ceremony. However, once they started on their performances they calmed down and played naturally, seemingly oblivious to what was going on around them.