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Goducate Laguna participates in Youth Leadership Peace Summit 2021

On Feb 17, 2021, Goducate Laguna partnered with My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Philippines Youth sector to participate in the Community Mobilization Project of the Local Government of Laguna, Youth Leadership Peace Summit 2021. The Summit was organized by Regional Mobile Force Battalion (RMFB-4A) at San Pablo Central School Gymnasium, San Pablo City, Laguna.

The Summit was part of an effort to foster closer ties with youth leaders to keep them away from illegal activities. It also aimed to hone youth to become better leaders and advocates of peace in their respective sectors.

25 youths from Goducate Laguna and the MBK-Youth sector, together with the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation of Laguna and other youth leaders and influencers of Region 4A-CALABARZON, attended the Youth Leadership Peace Summit. Altogether,  there were 125 attendees at the Summit.

Leo Decinal, Goducate Laguna Project Consultant and My Brother’s Keeper Philippines National Coordinator, was one of the resource speakers. He spoke on Values and Family. Other topics covered at the Summit included leadership; nationalism and patriotism; Executive Order No. 70 (an effort to institutionalize the Whole-of-Nation Approach to harmonizing government development efforts and services to pursue the country’s peace agenda); drug addiction and prevention; and love, courtship & marriage.

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

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Goducate Baguio provides life coaches to the police

The Goducate Team in Baguio had started to help the local branch of the Philippine National Police (PNP) with the Enhanced Revitalized Internal Cleansing Strategy (ERICS) (see Goducate blog of March 27, 2020), but the program was interrupted by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. So the program was converted to a virtual one using Zoom as a platform.

Under the ERICS program, members of the police force have to be part of a squad, with each squad being guided by life coach.

Goducate is one of the organizations that provide life coaches to the PNP. The Goducate Baguio team has been conducting the Squading Weekly Interactive Meeting (SWIM) on Zoom since July 2020. There are now nearly 60 police officers attending the weekly Zoom sessions held in various provinces around the region—namely, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Abra, Benguet, Apayao, and Kalinga. 

*Our guest writer is Carmela Damaso, a member of Goducate staff.
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Goducate’s Sing Your English program now delivered to homes in Indonesia

Goducate’s Sing Your English program (SYE) used to be taught in schools in Indonesia, but was temporarily halted when the Minister of Education announced on June 15, 2020 that extracurricular programs, whether delivered online or offline, should not be forced on students, especially during a pandemic.

Convinced that the ability to communicate in English is important, Goducate began to promote SYE online through a webinar for teachers. The webinar was attended by thousands of teachers from all over Indonesia, and as far as Sabang (Aceh) and Papua. The teachers were encouraged to register their own children for the SYE program on Zoom, and also to invite the parents of children attending their SYE Zoom lessons to join the class.

SYE class by Zoom

The response was amazing. As of November 2020, there were more than 100 SYE Z-Class students and registration is continuing, though the number of parents joining the classes is far from the target.

The SYE Zoom Classes are held every afternoon. Class levels range from Kindergarten to Junior High School. Parents are delighted that their children are occupied by SYE at home.

There is no charge for the SYE Zoom classes but students are encouraged to buy the SYE books.

Children with SYE materials

*Our guest writer is Sarah Sihombing, SYE Coordinator/Programme Development.