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Goducate sports programs progress online

When the Philippines government closed sports facilities as part of its effort to control the Covid-19 pandemic, Goducate’s basketball program adapted to the situation by offering training online to basketball coaches, referees, and leaders (see blog of June 12, 2020, on GoBasket webinars). After these virtual training sessions had been conducted for trainees from all over the Philippines and even for some from Malaysia, we introduced backyard coaching.

In backyard coaching, those who had been trained as coaches online would gather players in their own villages for virtual training.

The idea of online training has since been extended to other sports in a nationwide program called Go Asia Sports. The other sports covered in this Camp Goducate program include volleyball, football, taekwondo, fitness training. Coaches have been sending in their videos on training, which include moral values. The online training is conducted on Facebook.

On March 1, a virtual backyard Basketball Forum was conducted mainly for Western Visayas. The participants (30 from Western Visayas, 4 from Laguna, and 10 from Mindanao) shared ideas on backyard training and how to do so in accordance with government guidelines on control of Covid-19.

Poster about GoBasket’s training sessions 
*Our guest writer is Andrian F. Pagsuiguiron, National Coordinator for GoBasket Philippines.

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Goducate to provide new homes and potable water in Bay, Laguna

A groundbreaking ceremony was held at Goducate Meek and Lowly Sanctuary, Barangay Tagumpay, Bay, Laguna on March 9, 2021, to mark the beginning of two projects.

One project is the installation of potable-water systems for the community. The people in this barangay (village) have been using a hand pump to get their water from a deep well.

The other project is to construct new houses for families whose homes were badly damaged during typhoon Ulysses in November 2020 and who do not have the finances for reconstructing their homes.  Some of the families have continued to live in their damaged homes, whereas others moved into evacuation centers. The new homes are also designed to be elevated so that occupants need not have to evacuate when the village is flooded. Also each of the new homes will include a toilet. Some of houses in the villages do not have their own toilets, and some do but in a low-lying area that can get flooded.

Ten households have been chosen to be the beneficiaries of the housing project.

This Goducate project is being led by Mr. Leo Decinal in partnership with the Municipal Mayor of Bay, Laguna, the Hon. Jose Padrid, the Barangay Captain of Tagumpay, Bay, Laguna, Hon. Florencio Dungo, and Water Mission.

Other partners helping with the projects are the Regional Mobile Force Battalion in the leadership of PLTCOL Ledon Monte, and Municipal Link, Department of Social Welfare and Development under the charge of Mr. Maynard Marasigan.

*Our guest writer is Donnalyn Pereira, a staff member at Goducate Laguna.

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More online training for Goducate teachers and students in Sabah

From the start of this year, Sabah had a second lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first Movement Control Order was made in March last year (see Goducate blog 2020-07-31). Only two of the 10 Goducate schoolhouses went back to the face-to-face teaching in January and February this year, but we are aiming for them to go online.

Through its Sabah GOALS (GOducate Alternative Learning Schoolhouses) Program, Goducate had been helping “undocumented aliens” in Sabah who are not entitled to education in government schools. It had been doing so by training mothers to teach the children in the community. Mothers offer their homes to be used as Goducate schoolhouses.

Thanks to technology, and through constant encouragement, the mothers and youth had become open to learning new ways of teaching. We are grateful to those donors who helped to provide smartphones and monthly food and mobile data allowances for the teaching-mothers and the youth. The recipients are now given training on how to maximize the use of their phones.

The online trainings for the teachers are to equip them for the new-normal method of education. Using different phone applications such as Zoom, Messenger Chat Room, Google Meet, and WPS Office the teachers can now connect with and teach their students without exposure to health risks associated with face-to-face contact. The trainers are from Camp Goducate Iloilo, Philippines.

The teachers have been grateful for what they have received. One teacher wrote, “Thank you so much, these smartphones are a big help for the children and teachers in our schoolhouses for trainings and meetings”. Another teacher wrote, “Without these phones, I am not sure if I can join the available seminars or even one day teach to an online class”.

*Our guest writer is Pamela Kaye Dingal, who is in charge of the Sabah GOALS Program.